Abe Sutton, Director of the CMS Innovation Center and Deputy Administrator at CMS, joins Adam Goodman and Alison Anway on 13th & Park to break down one of the most consequential but least understood corners of the federal government: the agency responsible for testing new ways to pay for healthcare, improve outcomes, and lower costs for millions of Americans on Medicare and Medicaid.
Sutton explains the core mission of the CMS Innovation Center in plain terms: move fast, test new payment models like a venture portfolio, and scale what works. He discusses the shift away from fee-for-service toward outcomes-based care, why downside risk is essential for changing physician behavior, and how the center is deploying models focused on drug innovation, digital therapeutics, and rural health access under the Trump administration's broader MAHA agenda.
Drawing on his experience as a co-founder of healthcare companies that participated in CMS programs, Sutton offers a rare insider-outsider perspective on what it actually takes to get providers to invest in new care models. He talks about the importance of operational dependability, the challenge of designing payment bundles, and why productivity growth in healthcare has lagged every other sector of the economy.
The conversation closes on a personal note, as Sutton reflects on watching his father navigate his grandmother's Parkinson's care and a dangerous medication interaction that first drew him to this work. His message to talented people in the private healthcare sector: the Innovation Center is hiring, and the chance to reshape care delivery for an entire nation is worth the trade-off.
Chapters 0:00 Intro 1:29 What Does the CMS Innovation Center Do? 3:34 Why Congress Created the Center 4:24 The Venture Model for Healthcare 5:04 Fee-for-Service to Outcomes-Based Care 8:49 New Models: Elevate, Access, and More 10:45 Explaining Healthcare Reform to Americans 11:59 Digital Healthcare Tools and Older Adults 13:43 Blending Public and Private Sector Experience 16:00 Rural Healthcare and Digital Access 18:12 The CMS Leadership Team Under Dr. Oz 20:35 Why Healthcare? A Personal Story 22:29 MAHA and Taking Back Control
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