Hospitals In Focus
Trailer
Bonus
Episode 79
Season 1
Improving Care & Lowering Costs: Is CMMI Accomplishing Its Mission?
Chip and Dr. Liz Fowler, Deputy Administrator of CMS and Director of the agency’s Center for
Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), discuss CMMI’s mission to improve health
outcomes, overcome the obstacles to health equity, and reduce care costs. They look back on
what CMMS has accomplished in its first 10 years, what we have learned from this
experimentation, and the future of care and payment innovation.
Topics they examine include:
- CMMI’s successes over the last decade and what programs have resonated most.
- Controversial CBO report that says CMMI’s programs have increased federal spending –
not lowered it. - Performance of CMMI bundled payments and rationale behind a new mandatory bundled
payment program. - Goals of the newly announced state-based AHEAD model and how it will interact with
other ACO and value-based care programs. - Dealing with the challenges created by massive growth in Medicare Advantage.
- How CMMI is addressing the broad issue of health equity.
MORE:
Dr. Fowler has the unique role of leading an agency she helped create. From 2008-2010, she was
Chief Health Counsel to Senate Finance Committee Chair, Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), where
she played a critical role in developing the Senate version of the Affordable Care Act. The
framework for the CMMI was embedded in the law – so now, after several roles in the private