FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Improving the Quality and Efficiency of Medicare
BALTIMORE, Maryland (September 6, 2011) – With so much attention focused on reducing the budget deficit, policymakers are struggling to find ways to streamline the Medicare program. According to authors of an issue brief,Improving the Quality and Efficiency of the Medicare Program through Coverage Policy, released this week by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Medicare coverage policy could be a powerful tool to both improve beneficiaries’ health and reduce their costs of care. Coverage policy examines the clinical evidence to decide which services and treatments should be paid for and under what circumstances.
Issue brief writers Sean Tunis, Steve Phurrough, and Penny Mohr from Baltimore-based Center for Medical Technology Policy (CMTP) and Robert Berenson from the Urban Institute are all former senior officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) with direct responsibility for core aspects of Medicare coverage and payment policy. “The way Medicare has used this potentially potent tool to date has fallen far short of its promise,” says Tunis.
The authors argue the potential of Medicare coverage policy is not realized partly because of a lack of commitment and will, generally unrelated to controversial approaches that would require new or clearer statutory authority. They make concrete recommendations about ways in which CMS could be more proactive and systematic in its coverage policy or enforce its decisions that have been made. The authors also make some recommendations about more fundamental reforms that would require statutory clarification or new authority, but should be an important part of any discussion about restructuring Medicare to become a value-driven program.
Click Here for the Summary and Issue Brief
Contact:
Julie Simmons
Julie.simmons@cmtpnet.org
410-547-2687 ext. 116
401 E Pratt Street, Suite 631
Baltimore, MD 21202
www.cmtpnet.org