“Thank you, Kate. And welcome everyone to the CMS quality conference. Today, we are excited to share the many initiatives CMS is working on.”
“All of our initiatives focus on implementing a vision to transform the healthcare system into one that delivers better value to patients through competition and innovation. To achieve this, we will focus on three main objectives: empowering patients, focusing on results, and unleashing innovation…”
“Much of what ails our system can be attributed to the underlying flaws in reimbursement. The current financing structure treats episodes of sickness rather than promoting a lifetime of health, and it doesn’t reward providers who deliver high quality care, and positive results.”
“The costs of regulation and administration are also taking a toll on our healthcare system. A study found that for every hour providers spend seeing patients, they spend nearly two additional hours on paperwork…”
“You may have heard about our eMedicare initiative. Think about the average senior entering Medicare. They may still be calling their grandchildren for IT advice, but you can bet they use social media and have a cell phone.”
“eMedicare gives them new online tools, including secure access to their claims information. Our goal is to provide a seamless, online healthcare customer experience.”
“Yesterday we launched our first mobile app, which quickly shows whether Medicare covers a specific medical product or service.”
“Over the next year as part of eMedicare you will see a new mobile comparison tool that allows beneficiaries to compare quality ratings across all types of care settings instead of having to look across 10 different sites that exist today…” Read the full press release here.
Source: Remarks by Administrator Seema Verma at the 2019 CMS Quality Conference – January 29, 2019. CMS.
