Committee Leaders Press CMS on Plans for Innovation Lab

Leaders on the U.S. Ways and Means Committee are pressuring the Trump administration to clarify projects from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), reports Politico Pro . "Significant policy changes made unilaterally by the executive branch without sufficient transparency could yield unintended negative consequences for beneficiaries and the health care community," warned the committee in their bipartisan letter. "We strongly urge the agency to provide more sunshine in this process." The administration has been promoting CMMI as a core lab for "trialing" concepts to move the health system toward paying more for value. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has said little about this issue for several years, but CMMI is preparing to launch a pilot permitting Medicare to tie the prices of certain drugs to lower prices in other countries. CMMI also is expected to launch new projects that affect providers soon. Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal and ranking member Kevin Brady asked for a list of Medicare proposals under development and requested CMS to outline plans for keeping Congress more informed about its work.