About That ACA ‘Innovation’

It’s time to nix the CMMI

Letter to The WSJ.

"In your editorial “The Republican Clock Is Ticking” (Dec. 4), you note that a second reconciliation bill is a crucial opportunity to improve our fiscal health.

A great place to start is a program few Americans have heard of: the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. Launched in 2010 as part of the Affordable Care Act, CMMI was intended to test different payment models that would reduce healthcare costs and improve quality. Instead of saving $2.8 billion between 2011 and 2020, as the Congressional Budget Office projected, it cost $5.4 billion. One analysis from 2021 found that only four of 172 Medicare-related CMMI models met the criteria for expansion and 15% decreased costs. All this despite the program receiving $10 billion a decade.

Fifteen years is a long enough test. Americans are fed up with the waste and lack of accountability that emanates from Washington. Republicans can score an easy win by nixing the CMMI for good.

Tom Schatz

Col. for Citizens Against Gov’t. Waste"