In late November 2011, President Obama formally nominated Marilyn Tavenner, a nurse, to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the key agency within the Department of Health and Human Services which administers and develops policy for Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
On October 7, a joint workshop on Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) was held by the Federal Trade Commission, CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) and Office of Inspector General, Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS). Section 3022 of the Affordable Care Act encourages groups of providers to create ACOs to manage and coordinate care for Medicare beneficiaries, and receive payments for cutting costs & meeting performance standards (to be set by HHS). Section 3021 authorizes HHS to test whether ACOs improve quality and reduce costs.
ANA recently submitted comments urging CMS, Congress, and the Administration to allow APRNs – and all healthcare providers – to qualify for a portion of the billions of dollars in incentives for adopting health information technology/electronic health records systems under the federal Medicare/Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentive Program.
