CMMI's Blueprint for Rapid-Cycle Evaluation of New Care and Payment Models

This article describes the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation’s new rapid-cycle evaluation approach, which will assess its success at reducing expenditures and preserving or improving the quality of care provided to beneficiaries of Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. It sets forth how the Rapid Cycle Evaluation Group aims to deliver frequent feedback to providers in support of continuous quality improvement, while rigorously evaluating the outcomes of each model tested. This article also describes the relationship between the group’s work and that of the Office of the Actuary at CMS, which plays a central role in the assessment of new models.