Questions & Answers

In December 2025, the Elevance Health Foundation launched the Patient Safety Prize to invite pioneering community-informed solutions that improve patient safety. There are three categories under which solutions can fall:

• Empowering Health Literacy for Safer Patient Care 
• Innovating to Eliminate Medication Errors 
• Promoting Fall-Free Futures 

Elevance Health Foundation will offer a prize pool of up to $5 million. Up to three Winners will each receive $1.5 million and up to two Honorable Mentions will each receive $250,000.  

Please contact us with any challenge-related questions, requests for help with accessibility and special accommodations, and technical support.  

Once you have registered and throughout the challenge, we will send important notifications to the email address associated with your account, as well as the primary and secondary contacts listed on your registration form. There are three important steps you can take to make sure these messages are received promptly: 

1. Add our email address to your contacts. 
2. Whitelist our email address. Here are instructions to add to your whitelist in most major email providers. 
3. Update your registration form right away if one of your contacts changes. If you need to make a contact change after the application window has closed, please email us, and we will assist you. 

The Patient Safety Prize welcomes applications from nonprofit and for-profit entities located within the United States and U.S. territories. Each applicant must identify a Lead Organization who will assume responsibility for the receipt and management of any award. The following organizations are eligible to apply:  

• An entity based in the United States and/or US territories under section 501(c)(3) and 509(a)(1) or (2) of the Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) that has received a tax determination letter from the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”). 
• A private foundation based in the United States and/or US territories under section 501(c)(3) of the IRC that has received a tax determination letter from the IRS. 
• A fiscally-sponsored nonprofit organization. 
• A tribal government or tribal-owned enterprise. 
• A public college, junior college, or university under section 501(c)(3) of the IRC that has received a tax determination letter from the IRS.
• A PreK-12 public, private, or charter school. 
• A for-profit corporation organized under the laws of a State (or territory) in the United States. 
• A benefit corporation, flexible purpose entity, or similar "hybrid" entity organized under the laws of a State (or territory) in the United States. 
• A limited liability company or partnership organized under the laws of a State (or territory) in the United States. 

Review the Rules for a complete set of eligibility requirements.  

The Patient Safety Prize invites proposals for innovative solutions that improve patient safety through community-informed solutions in three areas: 

• Empowering Health Literacy for Safer Patient Care: Improving health literacy while enhancing patient and caregiver engagement, fostering trust in healthcare providers, and ultimately contributing to a culture of safety and informed decision-making.
• Innovating to Eliminate Medication Errors: Pioneer solutions that enhance medication safety, improve adherence, and reduce errors to safeguard patients’ health.
• Promoting Fall-Free Futures: Developing groundbreaking solutions to enhance fall prevention and ensure safety for the elderly.

Strong proposals should emphasize positive outcomes for vulnerable populations. Solutions may be in any stage of development – from research and ideation to operating at scale – but must demonstrate impact within the two-year project period. Be sure to review the scoring rubric to understand how applications will be evaluated.

We encourage you to first assess your fit and eligibility for the Patient Safety Prize, then register no later than 5:00 PM Eastern Time on Tuesday, March 17, 2026 to participate. Registration is required and is a simple two-step process. First, create a username and password then check your inbox to confirm your registration. Next, complete the online registration form. Once you are registered, submit your application online no later than 5:00 PM Eastern Time on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.

You may only complete one submission as the Lead Organization except as described below. An organization can serve as a partner on a team for multiple applications provided that each application proposes a separate, distinct solution. This means each project can only be submitted once, and we leave it up to each team to designate their eligible Lead Organization.  

Regional or location-specific branches of larger organizations, as well as departments, schools, and nonprofits within or based in a college/university, can each register and submit separately as the Lead Organization on one application. Participants may list both the parent organization and the specific applicant/project in the Lead Organization field on the registration form, such as College/Department (Parent organization) or Parent Organization – Project Name.

In all circumstances described above, the proposed projects must be separate and distinct. There should be no overlap in team members. The intent of the policy is to ensure that any team is concentrating their best effort into a single application. We encourage teams to select a single project that best represents your organization's ability to deliver a solution that meets the scoring criteria. 

Review the Rules for more information. 

Each application must include a brief video of no more than 90 seconds that showcases your project. This DOES NOT need to be a professionally produced video – a video shot on a smartphone is acceptable. The quality of your video will not impact the outcome of your proposal.

The following are instructions for recording and uploading your video on YouTube: 

1. Record a video using your smartphone’s camera app 
2. Download and open the YouTube app 
3. Sign-in or create an account on YouTube 
4. In YouTube, select “Create” > “Upload a Video”
5. Select your video and press “Next”
6. Set your video’s visibility to “Unlisted,” which will allow only those with the URL link to view your video (do not set to private or public) 
7. Select “Upload Video” 
8. Check to make sure embedding is turned on. 

For more information about video guidelines, review the submission requirements. If you need technical support, you can email us. 

Yes, you may update the registration form until the application deadline at 5:00 PM Eastern Time on Tuesday, April 7, 2026. From the Submissions tab of the platform, you can select Registration Form to update this information.  

Your submission may be shared with five of your fellow applicants as part of Peer-to-Peer Review, five Evaluation Panel members, the Selection Committee, the Patient Safety Prize team, and others at the discretion of the Patient Safety Prize team during the evaluation process.

Portions of your applications may be published online and may be shared with the general public to promote your proposal or to highlight results. Those portions may include, but are not limited to: Lead Organization, Lead Organization Website, Solution Title, Solution Statement, Executive Summary, Video Pitch, and Solution Description.