The Task Force Encourages Biden-Harris Administration to Advance Value-Based Payment

The Health Care Transformation Task Force (HCTTF or Task Force) wrote to President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris to encourage the incoming administration to promote affordable, person-centered, value-based care.

The HCTTF is singularly focused on advancing value-based payment and care delivery models which reduce cost, improve outcomes, and drive better population health for individuals and their communities. While HCTTF’s membership participates in many models or programs developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), it is equally driven to lead this change for all the individuals and communities they serve, regardless of payer.

Task Force Letter Summary

  1. A Strategic Vision is Needed to Realize the Potential of Value-Based Payment. It will be key for the incoming administration to develop a strategic vision for advancing value-based payment efforts in Medicare and Medicaid for the next four years and beyond. In the first days of the Biden Harris Administration, we urge CMS to begin a national dialogue about the lessons learned by all stakeholders about CMMI’s operations, model portfolio, and model evaluation methodologies. CMS should publish a Request for Information or similar notice in the Federal Register seeking public input to develop a more fully reflective public record of current perspectives and recommendations, considering Task Force recommendations for future innovation as articulated in a February 2020 Health Affairs blog: The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Can Be A Powerful Force for Change, But Not Without Key Reforms.
  2. Value-Based Payment Initiatives Should Address Health Inequities, Disparities and Other Systemic Weaknesses Laid Bare by COVID-19. We believe CMMI should instill addressing health equity as a key component of its mission. CMS should develop policies that require Medicare and Medicaid providers and plans to collect and make publicly available disaggregated data by race, ethnicity, subgroup, and other important factors. CMMI should place greater emphasis on addressing the social determinants of health to promote better population health for communities.
  3. CMS Should Seek New Ways to Ensure that Patients and Consumers are at the Center of their Health Care. HCTTF recommends that in the early days of the new Administration, CMS set up a listening session for consumer and patient groups to provide feedback on the Agency’s value-based portfolio and patient engagement initiatives. We recommend a separate listening session be offered that focuses on strategies health care organizations have pursued to achieve their patient-centeredness goals and the opportunity to share their learnings on what has worked and what has not.
  4. CMMI Should Support and Accelerate State-Led and Multi-Payer Value Transformation. We strongly urge CMMI to make more significant investments in testing new models of value-based payment and care delivery that address the holistic needs of the Medicaid population, including behavioral health and social needs, and advance health equity through community partnerships.
  5. Value-Based Payment and Care Delivery Should be Championed and Supported. We believe VBP and its implementers should be championed and supported for their contributions to bending the cost curve. The pioneer organizations and those that followed to voluntarily participate in value-based payment models should be applauded for their efforts and the opportunities their experiences provided for CMS to learn much about how to operate models. For now, it is critically important for the Biden-Harris Administration to express public support for value-based payment and the institution of CMMI and commit to continuing this important journey.
  6. Other Medicare Policies Should Support Value-Based Payment Transformation. Policymakers should reimagine payment policies and model methodologies to better account for these important elements of value-based care and make corresponding payment adjustments to cover these costs.

 

Read the Full Letter

 

Download the Press Release