We have hosted introductory sessions to spread the news about the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) American Indian Alaska Native (AIAN) Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) Program. Check out the recording of one of these: https://youtu.be/y0gZsDfKxM8.
This is a five-year program that started January 6, 2025, and runs through January 5, 2030.
The CMS AIAN QIO launched in January 2025.
However, the two previous iterations of this program (called the Partnership to Advance Tribal Health, or PATH), which also ran in five-year contracts, started in 2015, and were specific to supporting Indian Health Service (IHS) hospitals. The CMS AIAN QIO has a broader reach, partnering with Tribally managed or IHS-managed hospitals, nursing homes, outpatient clinics and Urban Indian Organizations.
Eligibility for this program includes Medicare-certified facilities managed or owned by Indian Health Service, Tribes or Urban Indian Organizations.
Program eligibility has two key criteria:
We would love to connect with you and learn more about your quality improvement (QI) efforts! Email us at ContactUs@aianqio.org for more information.
Participating facilities or organizations sign a participation agreement. Then a dedicated quality improvement advisor (QIA) will meet with you to understand your QI priorities and to co-design an action plan to get started on working together.
This program is 100% funded by the CMS, so eligible facilities can participate at no cost!
The time commitment is driven largely by the participating facility and its team’s QI priorities and where and how they want to focus their efforts.
This program does not have a staffing requirement for facilities. Our team includes certified health care quality and safety professionals, a traditional medicine provider, clinical providers, nurses, community liaisons and data and analysis experts – all passionate about supporting participating facilities and organizations. You determine where we can best support you, and we co-create action plans to align your local efforts with national CMS focus areas.
Achieving identified quality improvement goals is dependenton the mutual commitment and collaborative efforts between the CMS AIAN QIO and the participating organization. Participants will be asked to:
We would prefer to meet virtually with participating organizations at least monthly, with one in-person visit quarterly.
The CMS funds the CMS AIAN QIO, but CMS does not provide funds directly to facilities. We can help program participants learn about and consider other opportunities specific to chosen areas of collaboration.
Our QIO team can explore opportunities to support participating facilities’ QI leadership and be responsive to their specific needs. Examples of support we have provided in the past include:
The CMS AIAN QIO supports accreditation for hospitals, nursing homes and outpatient clinics. We will work with participating facilities to align activities with the certifying agency they use.
Group support could include:
Our team of experts supports a culture of quality, learning and improvement that spans entire organizations, from registration staff to executive leaders and projects led by the environmental services team. We know QI is most successful when projects include multidisciplinary team members and span across departments.
CMS allows for program flexibility, which means facilities that are IHS-managed, Tribally-managed or Urban Indian Organizations can identify their QI priorities. There are no specific measures to be reported, and the AIAN QIO team will work with measures facilities are already using and/or help identify new measures that align with identified QI initiatives.
