CMS issued an informal request for information seeking feedback on what it calls a "new direction" for its Innovation Center, which was established to help evaluate payment and delivery system models for Medicare and Medicaid programs.
The agency aims to pivot the Innovation Center to promote patient-centered care and market-driven reforms. To this end, it has invited stakeholders to submit comments through a survey posted to its website, due Nov. 20. However, it notes the RFI is solely for planning purposes and does not constitute a request for proposal, application or contract.
The center seeks to "empower beneficiaries as consumers, provide price transparency, increase choices and competition to drive quality, reduce costs and improve outcomes," by focusing on the following eight areas:
1. Increased participation in Advanced Alternative Payment Models
2. Consumer-directed care and market- based innovation models
3. Physician specialty models
4. Prescription drug models
5. Medicare Advantage innovation models
6. State-based and local innovation, including Medicaid-focused models
7. Mental and behavioral health models
8. Program integrity