The Affordable Care Act created the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMS Innovation Center) within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to “test innovative payment and service delivery models to reduce program expenditures…while preserving or enhancing the quality of care furnished to individuals under” Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Since its inception, we have launched more than 50 such innovative models—targeting specific health conditions, care episodes, provider types, and communities. From 2018 to 2020, an estimated 528,000 providers, serving more than 28 million Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP beneficiaries, participated in these models.
In 2021, after the CMS Innovation Center’s first ten years in existence, we conducted an in-depth performance review, and equity was one area of focus. Health equity is defined by CMS as “the attainment of the highest level of health for all people, where everyone has a fair and just opportunity to attain their optimal health regardless of race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, geography, preferred language, or other factors that affect access to care and health outcomes.”
