Agency official outlines CMS Innovation Center’s goals to improve quality and lower costs

An agency official at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said the CMS Innovation Center is charged by Congress with confronting “the most challenging issues we face in our society with healthcare.”

The official framed the center’s mandate around two core objectives: “one improve quality and two, lower cost.” They said improving quality involves helping Americans live their healthiest lives, achieve outcomes they want and feel empowered in their care. Lowering costs, the official added, means making care more affordable and more accessible so people can use and sustain services.

The remarks emphasized the Innovation Center’s role across federal health programs, naming Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) as the systems the center seeks to improve. No formal actions, votes or policy changes were recorded in the transcript; the remarks were explanatory about the center’s mission rather than proposing a specific initiative.