Task force pushes Trump administration to preserve CMMI, push to value-based care

Tom Price

The Health Care Transformation Task Force, a 43-member consortium of purchasers, providers, payers and patients, is making a case to the incoming Trump administration that the shift from fee-for-service to value-based payment models is worth preserving. In particular, the group stressed the importance of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation in promoting such models.

In a letter sent to Congressional leaders and members of the Trump administration, including incoming Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, the task force said the successful shift from volume to value requires a close link between the federal government and the private sector, lauding CMMI as a crucial link in that regard.

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"This laboratory continues to provide an effective vehicle to examine even more payment and delivery system reform concepts, including those that may be of a higher priority for the incoming Administration and Congress," the group wrote. "The testing of innovative ideas is critical to the continual modernization of the United States healthcare system. We urge the new Administration and Congress to continue using CMMI or a comparable entity to help develop competitive payment models based on value."

The coalition also stressed the bipartisan nature of payment reforms spurred by the Obama administration's efforts to accelerate the shift. Doing so, the group said, would help "moderate entitlement spending and free up needed discretionary resources for other national priorities, like infrastructure and defense."

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Another message stressed by the task force was that the new administration should fully support the implementation of MACRA, as well as the bipartisan chronic care legislation developed by the Senate Finance Committee.

"In the face of uncertainty, some industry participants may decide either to stop current investments, or not to begin to make investments until it is clear the new Administration and Congress will be supporting of this transformation," the task force wrote.

"The next four years will be a critical time for the industry," the group added.

Twitter: @JELagasse