In a letter to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma, Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC) Chairman Tony Coelho submitted comments on behalf of PIPC in response to the Request for Information on a new direction to promote patient-centered care at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI). Chairman Coelho urged CMS to implement "concrete reforms" in four key areas, including: (1) Defining a clear, consistent process for engaging patients and other stakeholders in development and implementation of CMMI evaluations; (2) Defining and adopting detailed criteria for patient-centeredness in CMMI evaluations; (3) Building on and strengthening the patient safeguards articulated in the RFI and; (4) Pursuing demonstrations that embody these reforms and put patients at the center of the health care.
Chairman Coelho also stated: "We believe that CMMI has a unique opportunity to change the culture of health care to truly put patients first. Doing so requires significant engagement with patients. We have learned from PCORI’s experience that changing the culture of research to be patient-centered required them to mandate engagement, and to enforce it as part of their contracts with researchers. Driving a culture of patient-centeredness in how we pay for health care will require CMMI to similarly mandate and enforce engagement of patients in developing, implementing and evaluating APMs."
| pipc_cmmi_comments_final.pdf |
