The Federal Vision for Payment Reform in the Next 10 Years

The health policy journal club is an interdisciplinary, inter-professional group convened monthly by the Farley Health Policy Center to discuss timely topics in health policy. A curated selection of high-yield articles provides the basis for discussion. Past topics have included income inequality and health, professionalism in medicine, patients as consumers, and adjusting payment for measures of social risk. This page presents the reading list from the most recent journal club.

Readings

1. Innovation Center Strategy Refresh. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. October 2021.
2. CMS Innovation Center Strategy White Paper FAQs
3. Background from the MedPAC 2021 report to Congress, chapter 2: Streamlining CMS's portfolio of alternative payment models 
4. interview between the Health Affairs editor in chief Alan Weil and Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services 

Summary 

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center was established in 2010 through the Affordable Care Act with the goal to transition the health care system to value-based care by developing, testing, and evaluating new payment models in Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Over 50 models have been tested in the last 10 years, spanning advanced primary care, episode-based care, accountable care, and state-based models. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) recommended that CMS reexamine and streamline its portfolio, and the Innovation Center underwent a strategic refresh to review lessons learned from the past 10 years and set priorities going forward.

The new CMS Innovation Center vision is a health system that achieves equitable outcomes through high quality, affordable, person-centered care. The white paper lays out 5 strategic objectives for advancing this transformation: drive accountable care, advance health equity, support innovation, address affordability, and partner to achieve system transformation.