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New center will test health care delivery, payment methods
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has recently introduced a new center that will explore innovative health care delivery systems and payment models.
Government officials say that the ultimate goal of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) is to improve the quality of care for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries while lowering the programs’ costs.
“The Innovation Center will be a new, and much needed driver of innovation aimed at improving health care for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries,” Richard Gilfann, MD, the acting director of the CMMI, stated in the release. “The center will indentify and test care models that provide beneficiaries with a seamless care experience, better health and lower costs. By working together with innovative and committed providers, we can create a system that works better for everyone. We want to identify, validate and scale models that have been effective in achieving better outcomes and improving the quality of care, but may be relatively unknown.”
The CMMI was created under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. At an Oct. 18 forum hosted by the Bookings Institution, Mark B. McClellan, director of the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform, noted that the CMMI has received $10 billion to fund and test new delivery and payment models from 2011 to 2019.
The center will create an “open innovation community” which CMS officials say will act as “clearinghouse of best practices” in health care. In addition, the center will receive feedback on its operations from health care stakeholders, such as doctors, consumers, payers and hospitals, and work with these groups to aid other providers in establishing new health care models.
In addition, the center will award up to $1 million in design contracts to as many as 15 state programs that integrate care for “dual eligibles” — beneficiaries who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid programs.
References:
www.brookings.edu/events/2010/1018_health_innovaton.aspx
www.cms.gov/apps/media/press_releases.asp
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