WEDI Town Hall (WEDI Members Only)

Our Guest: Abraham Sutton, Director, Deputy Administrator, CMMI 

WEDI members are invited to a virtual town hall featuring Director and Deputy Administrator of CMMI Abraham Sutton. This members-only session offers a unique opportunity to hear directly from federal Health IT leadership on current priorities, regulatory direction, and the evolving policy landscape impacting interoperability and data exchange. 

Abe Sutton serves as the Director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation and Deputy Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Before assuming this role in January of 2025, he co-founded two health service companies; Honest Health, which focuses on enabling primary care physicians, and Evergreen Nephrology, which focuses on enabling nephrologists. Sutton focused on health policy with the federal government from 2017 to 2019, serving at the National Economic Council, Domestic Policy Council and Department of Health and Human Services. In these roles, he coordinated health policy across the federal government, with a focus on the shift to paying-for-value within Medicare, increasing choice and competition in health care markets, and updating the federal government’s approach to kidney care. 

He holds a law degree from Harvard Law School and undergraduate degrees in political science, management, and health care management and policy from the Wharton School and the College at the University of Pennsylvania. 

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, also known as the CMS Innovation Center, develops and tests new healthcare payment and service delivery models to: Improve patient care. Lower costs. Better align payment systems to promote patient-centered practices. 

The CMS Innovation Center’s models are alternative payment models (APMs) which reward health care providers for delivering high-quality and cost-efficient care. APMs can apply to a specific: Health condition, like end-stage renal disease. Care episode, like joint replacement. Provider type, like primary care providers. Community, like rural areas. Innovation within Medicare Advantage or Medicare Part D. 

Learn more about CMMI through this video- https://youtu.be/juE4Q8AHBAk?si=eF12GXBLFeMk5X7h

A panel is health care experts will convene following Director Sutton's comments to discuss the path moving forward for Value-Based Care. 

The panel:

• Christopher Botts, American Medical Association
• Aisha Pittman, NAACOS
• Samantha Meklir, MGMA
• Summer Kahlon, Cotivit

Event Moderators, Julie Brown Georgi (AMA) and Michael Pattwell (Cotiviti), WEDI's Value Based Care Workgroup Co-chairs