CMS chiefs outline 10-year plan: 5 notes

Fewer payment models and a closer link between outcomes and health equity will guide CMS' strategy during the next decade, leaders wrote in an Aug. 12 blog post published in Health Affairs.

The blog post was authored by:

  • Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, CMS administrator 
  • Elizabeth Fowler, PhD, director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation
  • Meena Seshamani, MD, PhD, deputy administrator and director of the Center for Medicare
  • Daniel Tsai, deputy administrator and director of Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services 

Five things to know from the blog post: 

1. The leaders reviewed 50 alternative payment models and found only six of them achieved statistically significant savings for taxpayers and Medicare. Just four met requirements to be expanded.

2. Of those 50 models, 28 are in effect today. Running this many models concurrently is "overly complex," the leaders said. The next 10 years will focus on expanding successful models and launching fewer new ones.

3. CMS leaders see less value in voluntary models. CMS' innovation center plans to reevaluate voluntary models because they "limit the potential savings and full ability to test an intervention."

4. Health equity will be a cornerstone of each new model. CMS wants to find ways to get providers who serve low- and moderate-income, racially diverse and rural populations to participate in its models.

5. CMS will strengthen links between the innovation center, Medicare and Medicaid, and work on making innovation center data easier to get.

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