Burden Reduction

Developing Efficiencies Across the Healthcare Enterprise to Improve Patient and Provider Experiences

OBRHI engages as a trusted partner with stakeholders across the health system to understand, measure, and identify opportunities to reduce unnecessary burden and increase efficiencies to improve access to quality, affordable, equitable healthcare. OBRHI engages with the public through diverse channels to seek insights, and ensures those perspectives are reflected in CMS policy and operations. OBRHI curates these insights to drive action across the healthcare enterprise.

Recent Projects

Make Your Voice Heard RFI Summary: Reducing Burden and Increasing Efficiencies

CMS recently released a summary of the results from its Make Your Voice Heard Request for Information. CMS received more than 900 individual submissions which included over 4,000 comments, and gained valuable public insight on topics like accessing healthcare and related challenges and the experience of providers delivering healthcare. The shared burdens, thoughtful recommendations, and welcomed insight received from stakeholders will serve to inform our work and better support the populations we serve. Thank you to everyone who took the time to send in their comments. You can find more information on the RFI results by clicking here.

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CMS Releases the Chronic Pain Illustration

In late 2019,CMS launched a Chronic Pain Stakeholder Engagement, which focused on understanding more about access to covered care and services for people with chronic pain. We used qualitative research methods and the human-centered design process to understand and visualize the customer experiences living with, providing care for, and treating people with chronic pain. In addition to direct engagement, CMS leveraged data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The intent of the Chronic Pain Experience Journey Map (PDF) is to highlight the most prominent barriers experienced by people accessing care and the influencers acting on providers, ultimately affecting the person with chronic pain, their quality of care, and their quality of life. In collaboration with our Federal partners, we are exploring where opportunities exist for us to address these issues under the authorities we collectively have. We encourage everyone to explore where opportunities exist outside of the parameters of government to bring ease for those suffering with chronic pain, such as eliminating the stigmas that exist not only for those who suffer with chronic pain, but also those who suffer with behavioral health issues as well as those who suffer from opioid use disorder.

CMS recognizes the impact of pain across its programs, and has identified the importance of effective treatment and management of pain in the CMS Behavioral Health Strategy. This work aligns with the CMS Behavioral Health Strategy, the HHS Overdose Prevention Strategy, and important provisions of the SUPPORT Act that address the treatment of pain: Section 6032 which includes a Report to Congress and a CMS Action Plan to Enhance Prevention and Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder, and Section 6086, the Dr. Todd Graham Pain Management Study.

View the Chronic Pain Experience Journey Map (PDF)