US Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation must implement payment reforms rapidly, say CFC researchers

The USA's new Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMI) must be inclusive and flexible in developing and implementing payment initiatives, continuously monitor their impact, and rapidly disseminate them if they appear to be successful, in order to realize the potential for improved health care delivery and reduced spending, according to a new Health Affairs article by researchers at The Commonwealth Fund Commission, a private foundation based in the USA.

In "The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Will Be Central to Health Reform's Success," Stuart Guterman, Karen Davis, Kristof Stremikis, and Heather Drake lay out a series of recommendations for the CMI which, as described in the Affordable Care Act, is meant to develop innovative ways of providing and paying for health care that have the potential to reduce costs while preserving or enhancing health care quality.

The CMI, which will begin full-scale operations as part of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2011, will be responsible for developing at least 18 reform models specified in the new law, including: patient-centered medical homes, promotion of care coordination through salary-based payment; community-based health teams to support small-practice medical homes; use of health information technology to coordinate care for the chronically ill, and salary-based payment for physicians.