In a session at the Becker's Hospital Review Annual Meeting, Valinda Rutledge, director of the Patient Care Models Group at CMS' Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, discussed several current CMS initiatives aimed at improving healthcare quality at lower costs and how hospital and health systems may be impacted.
A former hospital CEO, Ms. Rutledge shared how she was recruited to CMS. After giving a presentation to several CMS leaders on some of the innovative care models the stand-alone health system she led had implemented, she was asked to join the innovation center. "From a professional point of view, I couldn't turn down an opportunity to be in the middle of the transformation of the industry," she said.
While American healthcare has incredible innovation in terms of pharmaceuticals and new technology, its overall quality is uneven, and its costs are sustainable, she remarked. In an attempt to combat this, Congress created the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and tasked it with rapidly testing and scaling up models that bend the cost curve. The three main goals behind all of the innovation center's projects, she shared, are: a healthier population, higher quality care and lower costs.
Ms. Rutledge then provided an overview of all the various initiatives currently being tested by the innovation center, including three different programs to test the impact of enhanced payments to primary care providers for currently uncompensated activities; various accountable care models, including the Pioneer and rural ACO programs; four bundled payment models under the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement program; and several additional funding opportunities for organizations to test their own models.
She encouraged hospital and health system leaders to get involved in these new models and thanked them for their interest and support so far.
"How many times in your career have you heard CMS say, 'Come help us transform healthcare and make regulations in the future?'" she asked, adding that the opportunity was a rare one.
"Response from the industry has been unbelievable," she said. "You have said, 'I'm not standing in the shadows or sitting on the bench'; [Instead, you said] 'I'm going to get on the field and help transform the country's healthcare.'"
CaroMont Health CEO Valinda Rutledge Heads to CMS
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A former hospital CEO, Ms. Rutledge shared how she was recruited to CMS. After giving a presentation to several CMS leaders on some of the innovative care models the stand-alone health system she led had implemented, she was asked to join the innovation center. "From a professional point of view, I couldn't turn down an opportunity to be in the middle of the transformation of the industry," she said.
While American healthcare has incredible innovation in terms of pharmaceuticals and new technology, its overall quality is uneven, and its costs are sustainable, she remarked. In an attempt to combat this, Congress created the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and tasked it with rapidly testing and scaling up models that bend the cost curve. The three main goals behind all of the innovation center's projects, she shared, are: a healthier population, higher quality care and lower costs.
Ms. Rutledge then provided an overview of all the various initiatives currently being tested by the innovation center, including three different programs to test the impact of enhanced payments to primary care providers for currently uncompensated activities; various accountable care models, including the Pioneer and rural ACO programs; four bundled payment models under the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement program; and several additional funding opportunities for organizations to test their own models.
She encouraged hospital and health system leaders to get involved in these new models and thanked them for their interest and support so far.
"How many times in your career have you heard CMS say, 'Come help us transform healthcare and make regulations in the future?'" she asked, adding that the opportunity was a rare one.
"Response from the industry has been unbelievable," she said. "You have said, 'I'm not standing in the shadows or sitting on the bench'; [Instead, you said] 'I'm going to get on the field and help transform the country's healthcare.'"
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Redesigning Healthcare Delivery Through Bundled Payments for Care: Q&A With Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation's Valinda RutledgeCaroMont Health CEO Valinda Rutledge Heads to CMS
Shifting From a Hospital-Based to Community-Based Mindset: Q&A With Valinda Rutledge, CEO of CaroMont Health