 |
| Photo courtesy of Yahoo News |
FasterCures congratulates Marilyn Tavenner for her confirmation as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), an $820 billion agency that oversees the bulk of federal healthcare spending and healthcare reform.
Tavenner is the first confirmed administrator for the agency in more than six years, backed by an overwhelming 91-7 vote in the Senate. Such demonstration of bipartisan support underscores the importance of having strong and sustained leadership of an agency that plays a vital role in determining the fate of the U.S. healthcare infrastructure.
CMS oversees Medicare, Medicaid, children’s health insurance, and implementation of many of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act. Decisions made by CMS impact not only the way we reimburse for costs associated with healthcare delivery, in so many ways, these decisions also determine what therapies patients can access today, and what therapies might move down the path from the laboratory bench to the patient’s bedside.
And that’s why at FasterCures, we’re particularly paying close attention to the role CMS and other payers could and should play in advancing innovation in research and development. We continue to work closely with all sectors of the medical research ecosystem to explore effective ways to engage payers into the R&D process whether it is through a discussion of what data sets are relevant to reimbursement decisions, or a broader conversation about the role that reimbursement will play on decisionmaking at biopharm companies as they decide therapeutic discovery pathways.
Tavenner has a long to-do list ahead and we commend her commitment to strengthening the agency to improve health outcomes for patients, make our health care delivery system more effective and efficient, and ensure the best possible therapies can be made available to the right patients at the exact time they need it.
We stand at the ready, Administrator Tavenner, to support you and CMS.
No comments:
Post a Comment