This week, Medicare Rights Center, along with a coalition of 20 organizations sent a letter expressing support for the mission and goals of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), including the proposed Part B Drug Payment Model. CMMI is the part of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) tasked with developing and evaluating ways to make the Medicare program more value-driven, more efficient, and more effective at delivering and paying for needed care.

While a significant movement is underway to transform the U.S. health care system to deliver person-centered and value-based care, these efforts often place a greater emphasis on the “value-based” aspects rather than the “person-centered” aspects of the transformation.

The Health Care Transformation Task Force, a consortium of patients, payers, providers and purchasers working to accelerate the pace of U.S. health care delivery system transformation, commits to close this gap and inspire a greater focus on patient-centered care.

This week, Medicare Rights responded to proposals from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that would make changes to the Medicare appeals process. Medicare Rights was supportive of some proposals to streamline and modernize the appeals process, and expressed concern about others that may undermine important beneficiary rights and protections.

Eight past Administrators of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services/Health Care Financing Administration—the agency that oversees and runs Medicare—wrote Congressional leaders this week expressing support for the Beneficiary Enrollment Notification and Eligibility Simplification (BENES) Act (H.R. 5772 and S. 3236). Developed by the Medicare Rights Center, the BENES Act modernizes and simplifies the Part B enrollment process.

A report released this week by the Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms (CHIR) reviews strategies to stabilize the Affordable Care Act health insurance Marketplaces, drawing on lessons learned from Medicare. Through the Marketplaces, millions of Americans—who would otherwise lack coverage altogether—now have health insurance made available through private plans subsidized by the federal government. While some insurers are succeeding in the Marketplace and expanding their reach, others are experiencing losses, leading to withdrawals from the market and premiums hikes. This instability is causing some to question the long-term sustainability of the Marketplaces.

This week, the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) released a report comparing Medicare beneficiaries who are under age 65 and eligible for benefits as a result of receiving Social Security Disability Benefits to those beneficiaries who are eligible for Medicare due to age. The report finds that Medicare beneficiaries under age 65 differ from those ages 65 or older in several ways, including demographically, socioeconomically, and in health status. KFF also reports that those under age 65 have different types and rates of supplemental insurance than older beneficiaries.

According to a new issue brief by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), the growth in total Medicare spending between 2010 and 2015 (4.4 percent) was notably lower than spending between 2000 and 2010 (9 percent). Even more remarkable, spending in the Medicare program has slowed even as enrollment in Medicare since 2011 has increased with baby boomers becoming eligible. Additionally, the average growth in spending per beneficiary each year was only 1.4 percent between 2010 and 2015, which is considerably lower than average spending growth of 7.4 percent between 2000 and 2010.