New Head of the Innovation Center Appointed

On January 6, 2020, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that Brad Smith will serve as the director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (Innovation Center) and senior advisor for value-based transformation to HHS Secretary Alex Azar.

Smith previously worked at Anthem as the chief operating officer of the Diversified Business Group and co-founded Aspire Health, a health care group providing palliative care. As the new director of the Innovation Center, Smith will play a leadership role in directing the agency’s efforts around value-based care, overseeing implementation of existing models, and shaping and selecting the future payment models tested by CMS.