Statement on CMS Innovation Center Strategy Update

By Soumi Saha, Senior Vice President, Government Affairs

Premier applauds the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for recommitting to the goal of moving all Medicare beneficiaries to arrangements with accountability for quality and total cost of care by 2030. Premier has long advocated for moving more quickly in this direction as it incents providers to deliver more equitable care by focusing on the health of the populations they serve and proactively managing care.

Premier appreciates the ongoing dialogue and open feedback loop the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) has provided for the private sector. We give the Administration high marks for committing to explore Premier-recommended strategies that leverage more than a decade of experience running the nation’s largest population health collaboratives. This includes:

• Supporting accountable care organizations (ACOs) overseeing their own “shadow bundles,” which will help ACOs build the capabilities needed for success in risk-based payment models and align and engage with specialists.
• Expanding alignment beyond primary care to encourage specialist participation, which will facilitate more effective collaboration across the continuum of care in ways that best meet the needs of their population.
• Developing subpopulation target prices for high-volume or high-cost conditions to ensure providers can reasonably achieve savings thresholds that truly reflect their performance.

We look forward to moving beyond talking about strategy to testing and scaling successful models of care, including using the Medicare Shared Savings Program as an innovation platform.