The new panel will provide strategic recommendations to improve the funding and delivery of care across Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the health insurance marketplace.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced Thursday it will establish a health care advisory made up of experts who will make recommendations directly to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz.
The advisory committee will focus on developing:
- Actionable policy initiatives to promote chronic disease prevention and management
- Opportunities for a regulatory framework of accountability for safety and outcomes that reduce unnecessary red tape and allow providers to focus on improving patient health
- Levers to advance a real-time data system, enabling a new standard of excellence in care, rapid claims processing, rapid quality measurement, and rewards
- Structural opportunities to improve quality for the most vulnerable in the Medicaid program
- Sustainability of the Medicare Advantage program, identifying opportunities to modernize risk adjustment and quality measures to assess and improve health outcomes
“This committee will help us cut waste, reduce paperwork, expand preventive care, and modernize CMS programs with real-time data and accountability, all while keeping patients at the center,” Dr. Oz said in the announcement.
CMS is seeking nominations for committee members who have expertise in chronic disease prevention and management, federally administered health care financing, and delivery system reform. Individuals may either nominate themselves or be nominated by an organization.
Nominations may be sent to HAC@cms.hhs.gov within 30 days of the formal publication in the Federal Register, which is scheduled for Friday, August 22. Members will be selected later this year.