CMS establishes Innovation Center
Washington, DC (November 16, 2010) — The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today formally established the new Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (Innovation Center). Created by the Affordable Care Act, the Innovation Center will examine new ways of delivering health care and paying health care providers that can save money for Medicare and Medicaid while improving the quality of care. CMS also announced the launch of new demonstration projects that will support efforts to better coordinate care and improve health outcomes for patients.
“For too long, health care in the United States has been fragmented—failing to meet patients’ basic needs, and leaving both patients and providers frustrated. Payment systems often fail to reward providers for coordinating care and keeping their patients healthy reinforcing this fragmentation,” said Donald Berwick, M.D., CMS Administrator. “The Innovation Center will help change this trend by identifying, supporting, and evaluating models of care that both improve the quality of care patients receive and lower costs.”
“The Innovation Center will be a new, and much needed driver of innovation aimed at improving health care for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. The Center will identify and test care models that provide beneficiaries with a seamless care experience, better health and lower costs,” said Acting Innovation Center Director, Richard Gilfillan, M.D. “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 Innovation Center will consult stakeholders across the health care sector including hospitals, doctors, consumers, payers, states, employers, advocates, relevant federal agencies and others to obtain direct input on its operations and to build partnerships with those that interested in its work. The organization will also test models that include establishing an “open innovation community” that serves as an information clearinghouse of best practices in health care innovation. The Center will also work with stakeholders to create learning communities that help other providers rapidly implement these new care models. As part of this engagement, today, Administrator Berwick and Acting Director Gilfillan, met with stakeholders representing the health care industry, as well as consumers, states, and employers, to discuss the Innovation Center and its planned activities.