New CMS chief stirs provider anticipation

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is planning on revamping its seven-year-old Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, Administrator Seema Verma said on Wednesday.

The innovation center, which has been the source of payment models such as Accountable Care Organizations, the nursing home value-based purchasing demonstration and bundled payments, will move in a “new direction” under President Donald Trump’s administration, Verma said in a piece published in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

“We will move away from the assumption that Washington can engineer a more efficient healthcare system from afar — that we should specify the processes healthcare providers are required to follow,” Verma wrote.

The center’s future was called into question at the beginning of Trump’s term. Earlier this month some lawmakers called on Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, M.D., to make the innovation center more transparent and collaborative, citing its “dangerous, overreaching policies.”

“While CMMI can have a vital role to improve the Medicare program in the right hands and with the appropriate guardrails, harmful proposals that would restrict access to care for seniors … should not move forward,” the group wrote. The letter was signed by nearly 90  House representatives.

Verma’s post accompanies the publication of a request for information from CMS on how to achieve that “new direction” while promoting patient-centered care, improving outcomes and reducing costs. Healthcare stakeholders are encouraged to submit comments about the center online; the last day to comment will be Nov. 20, 2017.

While the center may receive a facelift, not all of its signature programs will land on the chopping block, Verma said.

“We are analyzing all Innovation Center models to determine what is working and should continue, and what isn’t and shouldn’t,” she wrote. “The complexity of many of the current models might have encouraged consolidation within the healthcare system, leading to fewer choices for patients.”

A primary focus of the center’s shift will be competition, with incentives introduced to improve quality, Verma said. The initiative will also aim to increase flexibility, with new waivers from current requirements — an issue that has been previously raised by lawmakers concerned with some of the models’ mandatory nature.

The center’s new design will incorporate the “important value and lessons “ learned, CMS said.