Having worked for over a year as Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) Director, Adam Boehler is leaving the federal agency, according to July 10 media reports.
A Bloomberg report today that broke the news—according to three of the media outlet’s sources—also noted that “President Donald Trump is expected to nominate Boehler to lead the Overseas Private Investment Corp. later today. OPIC raises private capital to help development of emerging economies.” Politico later confirmed the Bloomberg report.
Boehler was officially named CMMI director in April 2018, and before that was the CEO of home-based care startup Landmark Health. Created under the Obama administration, CMMI is charged with piloting, testing and evaluating alternative payment models—such as bundled payment models, for example—with the intent of increasing quality and efficiency, while reducing program expenditures under Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
Much of Boehler’s work at CMMI centered around create alternative care models that would pay primary care physicians based on value rather than volume. One key area where he expressed great interest in improving was around kidney care. At the HIMSS19 conference in Orlando earlier this year, speaking to the press, Boehler said, “We do not think the state of kidney care is acceptable, nor is the level of transparency in that area acceptable,” noting an example of one area in which the federal healthcare agencies will work to reengineer payment incentives to incentivize the best behavior on the part of providers.
Interestingly enough, today the federal government also announced the launch of five new payment models from CMMI that “aim to transform kidney care so that patients with chronic kidney disease have access to high quality, coordinated care.” The purpose of the models range from encouraging greater use of home dialysis and kidney transplants for Medicare beneficiaries with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) to testing new Medicare payment options that aim to improve the quality of care for patients kidney disease.
In 2016, ESRD beneficiaries comprised less than 1 percent of the Medicare population, but accounted for an estimated 7.2 percent of total Medicare fee-for-service spending, or more than $35.4 billion. Other estimates note that just 12 percent of patients receive in-home dialysis.
The Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) has not yet made an announcement on Boehler leaving CMMI. Healthcare Innovation will update this story as it continues to unfold.
