Hearing explores potential of health law's Medicare payment experiments

During a Senate Finance Committee hearing, an administration official said the potential of the these efforts to show cost-lowering results would take time.

Politico: Orrin Hatch Warns On Medicare Payment Experiments Under ACA
Medicare payment experiments are still in the test tube, but Republicans are already predicting their failure. The experiments are part of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation, which was created under the Affordable Care Act to test new ways of delivering and paying for health care. The innovation center's been a sticky issue for Republicans, who generally agree that Medicare needs to be more efficient, do a better job of coordinating care and stress value not volume of care. They aren't sure that the innovation center -; and its $10 billion budget and wide-ranging approach -; is the answer (Cunningham, 3/21).

Reuters: U.S. Health Innovations Need Time To Show Cost Results: Official
The Obama administration on Wednesday said its experiments at controlling healthcare costs could need up to a year to produce results, frustrating congressional lawmakers eager to know if new innovations in care delivery can actually work. Dr. Richard Gilfillan, who is overseeing the initiative at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told the Senate Finance Committee that his agency is now testing three-dozen care delivery models involving 50,000 healthcare providers and more than 1 million beneficiaries (Morgan, 3/20).