CMS will launch new innovation center: Maybe some support for real innovation?

Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation will explore alternatives to the traditional fee-for-service model for paying doctors

via fcw.com

It is high time the federal government use its power to encourage innovation in health care delivery.  This new Center may be just what we need, but I sure hope they can see past their own biases and fund more than the usual range of applicants.

There's a paradox inherent in government funding for innovation: Funding is rewarded to those who can make it through a complex and burdensome application process and is therefore biased against the very innovation it would encourage.

Large institutions often have staff skilled in and dedicated to grant writing and the infrastructure that lends gravitas to an application yet are unlikely to engage in the disruptive innovation we need. 

We know from The Innovator's Dilemma that large institutions are expert in sustaining innovations - the incremental improvement we see in hospitals as they work to reduce post operative infection rates for example, but nearly incapable of disruptive innovation that threatens their business model - truly supporting primary care to reduce emergency room use and hospitalization.

"The fear of cannibalizing sales of existing products is often cited as a reason why established firms delay the introduction of new technologies." Clayton Christensen

CMS Administrator Dr. Berwick correctly lauds the sustaining innovation of hospitals and health systems but we are faced with quality and cost problems that far exceed the solutions offered by sustaining innovation. We are not going to wash our hands of MRSA and see overall costs and quality come in line with other developed nations.

If the federal government can think outside the box it might use part of its innovation funding to nurture more disruptive approaches.  This is no small move as it is highly likely to upset the status quo.  Support for disruptive innovation will require going beyond the usual friends of the beltway insiders as advisors to the process.  This means choosing some people who do not come from major institutions and are thus not professionally defined by their success in sustaining innovation.

Here's hoping we'll see some more disruptive types on the panels and advisory boards so that we might expect some actual innovation from this new Center.

Drop Dr. Berwick a line (877-267-2323 - general #, all I can find on line, if you have better contact info put it into comments) suggesting he look beyond the usual players and find someone who makes the rest of the room a little nervous or uncomfortable, someone who the big boys would tend to write off.

Comments

[Jean Antonucci]

I'd send him chocolate, i would deliver it in person i would walk to Baltimore it if would make a difference.:)

[L Gordon Moore]

Hey John, thanks for the info. Theres always hope.
Gordon

[John WH]

The hhs.gov lists as contact information for Dr. Berwick: E-mail: AskCMSquestions@cms.hhs.gov
Phone: 1(800) 432-2590. But the chances of something actually getting to him that way??