Important Medicare Announcement

We are pleased to share with you an important announcement involving payment reform in Medicare. As you recall, our shared goal in the LAN is to get 30% of health care payments in alternative payment models by the end of 2016 and 50% by the end of 2018. Today, President Obama announced that Medicare met the 30% goal in January of 2016, almost a year ahead of schedule. As you can see from the note below, Patrick Conway, the CMS Principal Deputy Administrator, commented on the important role of the Health Care Payment Learning & Action Network (LAN) in helping Medicare reach this goal; indeed, the announcement relies on the LAN’s payment reform framework. While we all still have much more to do in terms of payment that supports better care for patients and lower costs, this progress reflects the contributions of many LAN members. We thank you for that, and look forward to our next steps.

Mark Smith and Mark McClellan
Co-Chairs of the LAN Guiding Committee

Dear LAN Guiding Committee Members,

Earlier today, the President announced two landmark achievements for the U.S. health care system since the passage of the Affordable Care Act. First, more than 20 million Americans have gained health insurance. We have the lowest uninsured rate ever recorded. Second, as of January 2016, more than 30% of Medicare Part A and B payments are tied to alternative payment models. This latter milestone is particularly important to our shared work with the Health Care Payment Learning & Action Network (LAN) and follows the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ challenge to us all to shift the way we pay for health care away from the quantity of services to the quality and value of care we provide. CMS is proud to achieve the 30% target almost a year ahead of schedule, and we appreciate that we would not have been able to do this without the help of you and the LAN. Moreover, we know that true transformation of our health system cannot be done through Medicare alone, and so we look forward to continuing to work with the LAN membership at-large to achieve the goals of tying 30% of spending to APMs by the end of 2016 and 50% by the end of 2018 for the entire U.S. health care system. We encourage anyone who has not set specific goals to consider doing so, and to join the LAN effort to track progress across the public and private sector. Working together we can implement new payment models, learn what works, scale successes, and improve patient care. We can deliver on the promise of a health system that achieves better care, smarter spending, and better health outcomes for everyone in our health system. Thank you for your service on the LAN and for your leadership in this effort.

Warm regards,
Patrick Conway



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