Medicare & Medicaid Innovation Center
Aims To Increase Quality, Lower Costs

 

This month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) formally introduced the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation ( Innovation Center). Made possible by the Affordable Care Act, the Innovation Center will serve as a hub for efforts to explore new ways to deliver and pay for health care. Demonstration projects and models for delivery and payment will arise out of conversations with a wide array of health care professionals, government officials, consumers and advocacy groups (including the Medicare Rights Center). Ultimately, the plan is for successful models to be implemented throughout the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The ideal model would lower cost and result in better care and better health outcomes.

Currently the Innovation Center is overseeing three initiatives that will explore ways to better coordinate care for consumers: the Multi-Payer Advanced Primary Care Practice Demonstration, which will test efforts to integrate care; the Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) Advanced Primary Care Practice Demonstration, which will examine the impact of care coordination for low-income consumers; and the Medicaid Health Home State Plan Option, which allows states to create a “health home” option for people with Medicaid.

• Read a fact sheet on the Innovation Center.
• Read CMS’s press release.
• Visit the Innovation Center’s home page.

-From “ New Protections for Consumers”, Medicare Watch, Medicare Rights Center, November 18, 2010.

 

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