CMS leaders outline vision for Innovation Center

Based on lessons learned over the past decade, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure and other incoming CMS leaders last week described in a Health Affairs blog post their vision for the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation for the coming decade, which calls for “a health system that achieves equitable outcomes through high-quality, affordable, person-centered care.” To achieve this vision, they outlined five strategic objectives: drive accountable care, advance health equity, support innovation, address affordability and partner to achieve health system transformation. Among specific actions, they call for increasing the number of people in accountable care relationships, including those in historically disadvantaged populations; providing additional tools to deliver care to patients in their homes and communities; closing gaps in care by focusing on behavioral health and social determinants of health; lowering patients’ out-of-pocket costs; making model data more widely available; and increasing patient and community input on model development.