24 Sep Executive Director Statement: Championing the Move to Value-Based Care

Posted at 12:16h in Releases and Announcements by

Statement by Jeff Micklos, Executive Director, Health Care Transformation Task Force

The Health Care Transformation Task Force expresses its appreciation to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for announcing multiple models and other guidance in the past weeks related to value-based payment and care delivery transformation efforts. Seeing these budding models through to the implementation phase is an important milestone in the Trump Administration’s commitment to furthering a value-based health care system.

Value-based health care has shown promising resiliency in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has also shown the stark limitations of a fee-for-service system. Over the past ten years, health care providers have made great strides in refining care delivery protocols and adopting payment models designed to reduce spending and improve quality and efficiency. Medicare and Medicaid alternative payment models – both the Medicare Shared Savings Program and the broad portfolio at the CMS Innovation Center – have been a key driver in the industry’s move toward value-based care. Like any learning laboratory, there have been some good experiments and some not-so-good experiments, yet the overall commitment to transformation has positioned the industry with a wealth of important lessons learned to drive continued success over the next decade.

Today, the Task Force is releasing a series of Model Impact Briefers that tell the story of CMS’s value-based care successes during the last ten years.

While some models have generated greater program savings than others, virtually every Medicare model has taught participants the importance of challenging the old ways of providing care in favor of a modernized, person-centered delivery system that cares for the whole person, not just their medical needs. The success of value-based models is more than dollars returned to the Medicare Trust Fund; it is about how people and communities benefit from a concerted focus on healthier populations, greater care coordination, and primary care oversight. We hope you will find these briefers informative and helpful to reference in your value transformation efforts.

The private sector and other public health insurance programs continue to have a great opportunity to contribute more to this important cause. As our health care system rebuilds from the initial impact of COVID-19, it is important that value-based concepts and principles are instilled in the fabric of a more resilient system that puts people first and better handles future public health emergencies. We should not lose the opportunity to sustain the gains of value-based care and ensure continued commitment to health care transformation.

About the Health Care Transformation Task Force

Health Care Transformation Task Force is a unique collaboration of patients, payers, providers and purchasers working to lead a sweeping transformation of the health care system. By transitioning to value-based models that support better health, better care and lower costs, the Task Force is committed to accelerating the transformation to value in health care.