Coalition of Healthcare Providers, Patient Advocates Makes Recommendations to Improve Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation

In Response to Administration’s Request for Comments, Alliance of Over 40 Organizations Emphasizes Guardrails on Demonstration Projects, Transparency, Collaboration with Private Sector 

WASHINGTON – Over 40 organizations representing patients, hospitals, physicians, and healthcare leaders have provided the Trump administration with a set of recommended reforms to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) that will strengthen the role CMMI “can and should play in advancing healthcare delivery.”

The recommendations from the Healthcare Leaders for Accountable Innovation in Medicare and Medicaid coalition comes in response to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Request for Information regarding improvements to CMMI.  The coalition was formed a year ago to CMMI’s important and appropriate role in testing new healthcare payment and delivery concepts, but also to address concerns about the Center’s operation and practices.

In a letter to CMS Administrator Seema Verma, the coalition has called for:

• Appropriate-scaled model testing that is voluntary, transparent, and structured in a way to ensure scientifically-valid results prior to any expansion decisions.

• Collaboration with the private sector to harness market competition and innovation in order to better advance healthcare value.

• Greater transparency and meaningful stakeholder engagement, including consultation with affected parties in the development of new models.

• Respect for Congress’s role in approving model expansions and setting policy for the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

• Improved sharing of data from CMMI testing, with data made public on an ongoing basis to ascertain impact on care quality and inform parallel efforts in the private sector.

• Strengthened beneficiary safeguards, including adequate education about new projects for affected Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries and protections to ensure continued healthcare access and care quality.

In the letter to Administrator Verma, the coalition said it was pleased to see that a number of these recommendations were already aligned with the guiding principles for CMMI outlined by CMS in the Request for Information.

The letter added, “Adoption of these principles can help to ensure that demonstrations are widely embraced and supported, a contrast to recent episodes that saw widespread resistance from patients and the healthcare community.”