Manatt Health Counsel Adam Finkelstein was quoted in a Modern Healthcare article about value-based care (VBC) innovation goals set by Congress and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Since setting the goal to move all Medicare beneficiaries to accountable care arrangements by 2030 shortly after President Joe Biden took office, CMS has been testing new models to transition to VBC. While some have expressed dissatisfaction with the increase in spending and seemingly low number of approved expansions, Finkelstein said CMS is operating as it was tasked to do under the Affordable Care Act.
"When CMMI debuted, it was a true incubator of all ideas. The positive way of describing it was that they were going to let 1,000 flowers bloom," Finkelstein said. "The negative would be that they were throwing spaghetti on the wall to see what would stick, which at the time, I think, was a valid way of approaching healthcare innovation."
With the 2030 deadline on the horizon, industry stakeholders have said Congress and CMS will have to make adjustments in order to incentivize health care providers to adopt advanced alternative payment models. However, Finkelstein said there is still time for CMS to achieve its goal.
"Like anything in life, the last 20% will be the hardest," Finkelstein said. "CMS and CMMI in particular have shown themselves as being fairly adept at understanding the nuances and what it takes to get people into models. So I wouldn't count them out yet."
Read the full Modern Healthcare article here.