[Source: Health and Life Sciences Law Daily, September 13, 2007]
Modern Healthcare (9/13, Lubeli) reports that Kerry Weems, acting CMS administrator, "laid out his agenda to reporters and promised to introduce more transparency in the way the CMS does business. Starting at the end of the month, for example, all corrective-action measures between the CMS and Medicare Advantage plans will be made public on the agency's Web site, Weems said." Modern Healthcare notes that Weems "said he would continue to support quality and health information-technology initiatives, and would be issuing a report to Congress soon on value-based purchasing in hospitals. To get the message out on the Medicare Part D drug benefit, his goal is to inform the family members and others who take care of the beneficiaries using Part D, he said."
The Hill (9/13, Young) adds that Weems also vowed "to improve program management and to evaluate the agency's relationships with health plans and other private contractors." Weems said CMS "would seek to refute criticisms that the agency is too close to and too lenient on the private companies with which it does business." He noted, "The tone that I'm trying to set is that CMS needs to make sure that we maintain an arm's-length relationship with our partners."
