General session recap: Nilasena discusses CMS initiatives for reducing burdens, improving quality

This morning, the “CMS guy,” as he referred to himself, took the stage to open Day 2 of the 2018 ACDIS conference. David S. Nilasena, MD, MSPH, MS, the chief medical office for CMS’ Dallas Regional Office, shared some insight into the new CMS programs aimed at improving quality and reducing regulatory burdens for providers.

During the session, Nilasena discussed four main programs and initiatives:

• Patients Over Paperwork
• Meaningful Measures
• Interoperability
• Merit-based Incentive Payment System

The initiatives tie into CMS’ oft-repeated goal of reducing regulatory burdens. According to Nilasena, “customer feedback” from the clinicians effected by these programs influenced these changes.

“We want to make things better for everyone,” he said. “We want the measures to be meaningful to the physicians too.”

Additionally, Nilasena touched on the need to share patient data across the care continuum and with the patients themselves, echoing yesterday’s keynote session focusing on the future of healthcare and technology.

“We’ve been successful in getting people to adopt EHRs, but it doesn’t help if the data’s not shared,” Nilasena said.

Though each program he talked about has different requirements and focal points, they all shared a common goal, Nilasena said. “For CMS, our ‘One Thing’ is that patients come first,” he said, referencing this year’s conference theme.

Editor’s note: ACDIS members will have access to all the slide presentations in the resources section of the website roughly two weeks following the conference.