Fact Sheets

INNOVATION ADVISORS PROGRAM FACT SHEET

OVERVIEW

 

The Innovation Advisors Program is designed to broadly help individuals refine, apply, and sustain managerial and technical skills necessary to drive delivery system reform for the benefit of Medicare, Medicaid, and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) beneficiaries. 

 

This program will support individuals who can test and refine new models to drive delivery system reform.  The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center seeks to deepen the capacity of transforming the larger health care system and build the essential infrastructure and assistance for driving change by creating and supporting experts in these areas in communities across the country. 

 

INNOVATION ADVISORS PROGRAM

 

Crucial to the efforts of transforming the healthcare system is supporting individuals who can test and refine new models to drive delivery system reform.  The Innovation Center seeks to deepen the capacity for transformation by creating a network of experts in improving the delivery system for Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP beneficiaries.    

 

The Innovation Advisors Program will allow skilled individuals in the health care system to deepen several key skill sets, including:

• Health care economics and finance;
• Population health;
• Systems analysis; and
• Operations research.

 

These individuals will:

• Support the Innovation Center in testing new models of care delivery;
• Utilize their knowledge and skills in their home organization or area in pursuit of the three-part aim of improving health, improving care, and lowering costs through continuous improvement;
• Work with other local organizations or groups in driving delivery system reform;
• Develop new ideas or innovations for possible testing of diffusion by the Innovation Center; and
• Build durable skill in system improvement throughout their area or region.

 

In December 2011, the CMS Innovation Center selected 73 individuals out of 920 applications through a competitive process to participate in the initiative.  The first group of Innovation Advisors will start their six-month intensive orientation and applied research period in January 2012. 

 

The Innovation Advisors Program will select and develop as many as 200 individuals from across the nation in its first year.  It is anticipated that applications will be reopened in Spring 2012 and that the remaining advisors will be selected by June 2012.  Applicants who were not selected for the first group do not have to reapply and will automatically be considered when applications are reopened for the remaining Innovation Advisors slots. 

 

Eligibility Criteria:

 

Individuals who apply to be Innovation Advisors can be any professional employed by a public health or health care facility, institution or department.  Candidates include, but are not limited to, physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, instructors, and non-clinicians (i.e. health care executives, practice managers) with experience in the health care field.  Management experience will be viewed as an asset. 

 

Agreements with Innovation Advisors will be made with each accepted individual’s home organization or group. 

 

Advisors will not become employees of CMS, any other government office or agency. Each participating Advisor’s home organization will receive a stipend in conjunction with their participation. The Advisors are expected to commit up to 10 hours per week during an initial six-month period, with similar involvement thereafter depending on an individual’s proposed work plan.  Selected individuals will receive guidance and specific information related to the required activities of the program in various on-site and in-person meetings as well as ongoing meetings that will occur primarily through remote, virtual sessions.  Advisors will also meet together at a regional level each quarter and at CMS once each year to exchange insights, report on breakthrough successes and solve joint challenges. 

 

Advisors will be expected to devote a certain percentage of their time to assist the Innovation Center in supporting local change and assisting the Innovation Center in connecting peer participants across the nation in an exchange of new ideas and innovations. 

 

Selection Criteria:

 

The following criteria will be taken into account in selecting Innovation Advisors:

• The individual’s career achievements;
• The individual’s pre-existing skill set (and its relevance to transforming the healthcare delivery system for Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP beneficiaries);
• The quality of their proposed innovation project   in their home organization or area; and
• Their organization’s explicit commitment to their work. 

 

Diversity of location and the individual’s job type and its value to the program will also be considered. 

 

 

The First Group of Innovation Advisors:

Below are names of the 73 individuals selected as Innovation Advisors, the organizations they are affiliated with, and their city and State:

 

Dr. Clay Ackerly, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA

Dr. Parag Agnihotri, Medical Clinic of Sacramento Inc., Sacramento, CA

Mr. Rod Baird, Geriatric Practice Management, Inc., Asheville, NC

Dr. David Baker, LifeBridge Health System, Baltimore, MD

Ms. Christine Baker, St. Mary's Hospital, Madison, WI

Dr. Randi Berkowitz, Hebrew SeniorLife, Roslindale, MA

Ms. Barbara Blakeney, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA

Ms. Rosemary Botchway, Primary Care Coalition of Montgomery County, MD, Inc., Silver Spring, MD

Ms. Laura Beth Brown, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN

Dr. Stephanie Bruce, Washington Hospital Center, Medical House Call Program, Washington, DC

Ms. Anna Marie Butrie, Catholic Health East, Newtown, PA

Mr. Gary Christensen, Rhode Island Quality Institute, Providence, RI

Dr. Beverly Christie, Fairview Health Services, St. Paul, MN

Ms. Erin Conklin, Genesys Health System, Grand Blanc, MI

Ms. Laura Conley, Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago, IL

Dr. Yeates Conwell, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY

Ms. Diane Curley, Catholic Health Services of Long Island, Smithtown, NY

Ms. Jennifer DeCubellis, Hennepin County, Minneapolis, MN

Ms. Erin Denholm, Centura Health, Denver, CO

Dr. Pamela Duncan, Wake Forest Baptist Health, Winston Salem, NC

Dr. Erin DuPree, The Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY

Dr. Zahra Esmail, White Memorial Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA

Dr. Anna Flattau, Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY

Dr. Christian Furman, University of Louisville Research Foundation, Inc., Louisville, KY

Dr. Corita Grudzen, Mount Sinai Medical Center Department of Emergency Medicine, New York, NY

Ms. Kellie Hamblin, Providence Health & Services, Renton, WA

Ms. Grace Hines, Sentara Healthcare, Norfolk, VA

Dr. Srikant Iyer, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH

Dr. Jonathan Jaffrey, The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Middleton, WI

Dr. Daniel Johnson, Kaiser Permanente (Colorado), Aurora, CO

Dr. Colleen Kraft, Carilion Medical Center, Roanoke, VA

Dr. Candice Lagasse, United States Air Force, Buckley AFB, CO

Dr. Suzanne Landis, Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC), Asheville, NC

Dr. Larry Lawhorne, Wright State Physicians, Inc., Dayton, OH

Dr. Barbara Levin, Chota Community Health Services, Inc., Madisonville, TN

Ms. Julie Lewis, Amedisys Holding, L.L.C., Baton Rouge, LA

Dr. Stephen Liu, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH

Ms. Jeanne McAllister, Crotched Mountain Foundation (CMF), Concord, NH

Ms. Tonya Moody, AmeriHealth Mercy Health Plan, Philadelphia, PA

Dr. Nancy Murphy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT

Dr. Maureen Murphy, SSM Healthcare of Wisconsin, Inc., Lake Delton, WI

Ms. Margaret Namie, Mercy Health Partners of Southwest Ohio, Cincinnati, OH

Dr. Zeev Neuwirth, Carolinas Healthcare System, Charlotte, NC

Dr. Len Nichols, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA

Ms. Deborah Peartree, Monroe Plan for Medical Care, Inc., Pittsford, NY

Dr. Janice Pringle, University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy, Pittsburgh, PA

Dr. Judith Rabig, Masonic Health System of Massachusetts, Leeds, MA

Dr. Jack Resnick, Empire State Medical Associates, P.C., Roosevelt Island, NY

Dr. Neil Resnick, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA

Ms. Stevi Riel, Muskegon Community Health Project, Muskegon, MI

Ms. Nancy Roberts, Kent County Visiting Nurse Association, Warwick, RI

Ms. Jean Sanders, Aquidneck Medical Associates, Inc., Newport, RI

Dr. Michelle Schoepflin Sanders, Providence Health & Services, Portland, OR

Ms. Christina Schwien, Qualis Health, Seattle, WA

Dr. Kathy Scott, ProHealth Care, Inc., Waukesha, WI

Dr. Cordelia Sharma, Westchester County Health Care Corporation, Valhalla, NY

Dr. Phyllis Sherard, Cheyenne Regional Medical Center, Cheyenne, WY

Dr. Jason Stein, Emory Healthcare, Atlanta, GA

Dr. Winnie Suen, Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA

Ms. Cristin Sullivan, St. Vincent Hospital, Green Bay, WI

Ms. Paula Suter, Sutter Health, Fairfield, CA

Dr. Sharon Tapper, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Santa Cruz, CA

Ms. Kelly Taylor, Mercy Clinics, Inc., Des Moines, IA

Ms. Maureen Thompson, St. Francis Healthcare Services, Wilmington, DE

Dr. Thomas Tsang, Office of the Governor, State of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI

Ms. Maxine Vance, Baltimore Healthy Start, Inc., Baltimore, MD

Dr. Betty Vohr, Women & Infants Hospital, Providence, RI

Dr. Alen Voskanian, VITAS Innovative Hospice Care, Torrance, CA

Dr. Jay Want, Center for Improving Value in Health Care, Denver, CO

Dr. Victoria Wilkins, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT

Ms. Janet Will, Joseph Richey Hospice, Baltimore, MD

Dr. Sarah Woolsey, HealthInsight, Salt Lake City, UT

Dr. Richard Young, JPS Physician's Group, Fort Worth, TX

 

About the Innovation Center

 

The Innovation Center was created by the Affordable Care Act to test new models of health care delivery and payment.  As part of its mission, the Innovation Center also seeks to offer technical support to providers to improve the coordination of care, and share lessons learned and best practices widely throughout the healthcare system.  It is committed to transforming the Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP programs to deliver better care for beneficiaries, better health for populations and slower growth in expenditures through improvement for Medicare beneficiaries. 

 

For more information, please visit: http://innovations.cms.gov/initiatives/innovation-advisors/index.html.