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Over the past several weeks, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has sought to emphasize its ongoing focus on health equity across several efforts:
- Updated Fact Sheet and Strategic Pillars. On May 24, CMS released updates to its Health Equity Fact Sheet and Strategic Plan webpage. Following the template CMS used in its 2023 Strategic Framework, the 2024 refresh of the Strategic Plan notes specific actions undertaken and policies enacted by CMS under each “strategic pillar” and underscores the impact of each.
- Health Equity Conference. After hosting its inaugural Health Equity Conference in June 2023, CMS reconvened this conference on May 29 and 30. Over the two days, the conference covered a broad swath of topics, including maternal health, enhancing access and affordability, and providing culturally linguistic care, presented by a range of federal officials as well as community-based organizations, advocates, and private partners.
- CMMI Blog in Health Affairs. On June 4, several Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI or the Innovation Center) leaders published an article in Health Affairs detailing CMMI’s efforts to advance health equity through modifying existing models or developing new ones that “promote and incentivize equitable care.” The June 4 article provides a status update on accomplishments over the past year and new work for 2024. In particular, the authors focus on three areas of the Innovation Center’s work on health equity: safety-net provider participation, data collection, and payment innovations.
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