Medicare Innovation Center to Cancel Select Payment Trials

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has announced the cancellation of several trials in an effort to change the way health providers are paid while shifting to the new strategic goals of the Trump administration.

Innovation center models are time-limited trials aimed at improving patient care and lowering costs while operating under a controlled environment to "determine what approaches should be expanded nationwide, what specific components of an approach need further testing in successor models and what approaches are not viable for expansion." The center was created under the Affordable Care Act to test different ways to provide and reimburse for health services.

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation plans to end several trials to better align with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again initiative.  

Among the trials to be canceled by the end of 2025 are Maryland Total Cost of Care, Primary Care First, ESRD Treatment Choices, and Making Care Primary. According to CMS, "The early termination ... does not signal a retreat from the center's support of primary care providers, but rather a need to focus on different approaches that are consistent with the CMS Innovation Center's statutory mandate and produce savings."

The center affirmed that the changes are in effort to help Americans live healthier lives while protecting taxpayers.

The inovation center "is committed to testing — and eventually scaling — innovative payment models that meet the statutory goals of reducing program spending while maintaining or improving quality of care," a CMS spokesperson said. CMS estimated the changes will save taxpayers almost $750 million annually.

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