The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced on November 17 that it has formally established an innovation center to examine new ways of delivering healthcare that are designed to save money for CMS while improving the quality of care for its patients. Richard Gilfillan, MD, has been named its acting director.
Created by funding from the Affordable Care Act, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation will identify, support, and evaluate models of care that both improve the quality of care patients receive, as well as reduce costs, according to CMS administrator Donald Berwick, MD.
Berwick stated that the new innovation center will consult stakeholders across the U.S. healthcare sector to obtain direct input on its operations and to build partnerships with those interested in its work. CMS defined stakeholders as being interested individuals, physicians, other healthcare professionals, hospitals, state governments, employers, professional organizations and advocacy groups, and federal agencies.
Gilfillan is a relative newcomer to CMS. He joined the agency in August 2010 as director of the performance-based payment policy staff. Previously, he was a consultant for Geisinger Consulting Group in Danville, PA. There, he consulted on the design and implementation of novel care delivery and financing programs, including accountable care organizations (ACOs), patient-centered medical homes, and bundled payment systems.
The innovation center intends to test models that include establishing an "open innovation community" that serves as an information clearinghouse of best practices in healthcare innovation. It also will work to create "learning communities" that help other providers rapidly implement the new care models.
The initial work of the center will focus on three areas, Berwick stated:
- Improving care for patients in hospitals, clinics, physicians' offices, and nursing homes, and developing ways to make care safer, more patient-centered, more efficient, more effective, more timely, and more equitable.
- Developing new models that will make it easier for healthcare professionals to coordinate care for a patient to improve his/her health outcome.
- Exploring steps to improve public health, particularly by fighting the epidemics of heart diseases, obesity, and smoking.
In a message posted on the center's new website, www.innovations.cms.gov, Berwick wrote that "the Innovation Center is different from what CMS has done before," and invited "anyone who wants to help to join us on this endeavor."
CMS also announced a new opportunity for state government agencies to apply for contracts to support development of new models aimed at improving care quality, care coordination, cost-effectiveness, and overall experience of beneficiaries who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. The Innovation Center expects to award up to $1 million in design contracts to as many as 15 state programs for this work.
By Cynthia E. Keen
AuntMinnie.com staff writer
November 17, 2010
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