Elizabeth Fowler
Elizabeth Fowler, Ph.D., J.D., is the Deputy Administrator and Director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMS Innovation Center). Dr. Fowler previously served as Executive Vice President of programs at The Commonwealth Fund and Vice President for Global Health Policy at Johnson & Johnson. Liz was special assistant to President Obama on health care and economic policy at the National Economic Council. In 2008-2010, she was Chief Health Counsel to Senate Finance Committee Chair, Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), where she played a critical role developing the Senate version of the Affordable Care Act. She also played a key role drafting the 2003 Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act (MMA). Liz has over 25 years of experience in health policy and health services research. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where her research focused on risk adjustment, and a law degree (J.D.) from the University of Minnesota. She is admitted to the bar in Maryland, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Liz is a Fellow of the inaugural class of the Aspen Health Innovators Fellowship and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
Arrah Tabe-Bedward
Arrah Tabe-Bedward is the Deputy Director of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation. Ms.Tabe-Bedward comes to the Innovation Center with a strong background in Medicare. She previously served as the Director of the Medicare Enrollment and Appeals Group (MEAG) at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). As MEAG’s Director, Ms.Tabe-Bedward was responsible for all enrollment and appeals policy under the Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS), Medicare Advantage (MA), and Medicare Prescription Drug (Part D) programs, and had shared responsibility with the Social Security Administration on Medicare eligibility, enrollment and low-income subsidy issues. She also had oversight responsibility for all Medicare appeals operations for the FFS, MA and Part D Qualified Independent Contractors, the appeals units of the Medicare administrative contractors, and CMS’ Beneficiary Notice Initiative, which includes provider-issued notices such as the Important Message from Medicare and the Advance Beneficiary Notices of Noncoverage. Ms.Tabe-Bedward has a JD from the University Of Maryland School Of Law and an MS in Public Service Management from DePaul University. She initially joined the federal government as a Presidential Management Fellow. In addition to MEAG, she worked in CMS’ Program Integrity Group and Office of Legislation.
Ellen Lukens
Ellen Lukens is the Deputy Director of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMS Innovation Center). In this role, Ms. Lukens leads policy development at the CMS Innovation Center. Ms. Lukens has deep experience both within and outside the government tackling complex health policy issues. Prior to this role, Ellen served as the Group Director of the Policy and Programs Group (PPG) within the CMS Innovation Center, where she led the team that provides cross-cutting support for Center-wide policy and portfolio management, including related to the Advanced Payment Model (APM) portion of the Medicare and Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). Ms. Lukens also served as the Division Director for Ambulatory Payment models, where she led development of physician-focused specialty care models, including the Oncology Care Model. Prior to joining CMS, Ms. Lukens led the Provider Practice at Avalere Health. In that role, she worked with hospitals, physician groups, and post-acute care providers on many policy and strategy issues, including developing analytic tools to improve provider performance and to evaluate participation in CMMI models. Prior to Avalere, Ms. Lukens held policy roles in hospital associations. Ms. Lukens began her health policy career as Presidential Management Fellow at CMS. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University and a Master of Public Health from the University of Michigan.
CMMI Functional Statement
- Identifies, validates and disseminates information about new care models and payment approaches to serve Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries seeking to enhance the quality of health and health care and reducing cost through improvement.
- Consults with representatives of relevant Federal agencies, and clinical and analytical experts with expertise in medicine and health care management, including providers, payers, states, businesses, and community agencies, to develop new and effective models of care.
- Creates and tests new models in clinical care, integrated care and community health, and disseminates information on these models through CMS, HHS, states, local organizations, and industry channels.
- Performs rapid cycle evaluation of innovation and demonstration activities to determine effectiveness and feasibility for broader dissemination, scale, and sustainability.
- Works closely with other CMS components and regional offices to study health care industry trends and data for the purposes of designing, implementing, and evaluating innovative payment and service delivery models, and to disseminate information about effective models.
- Creates and tests innovative payment and service delivery models, building collaborative learning networks to facilitate the collection and analysis of innovation, as well as the implementation of effective practices, and developing necessary technology to support this activity.
- Creates and tests innovative payment and service delivery models, developing fellows with expertise in innovation, demonstration and diffusion to help support the introduction of effective practices across the nation.
- Carries out core business functions (e.g., budget, facilities, HR, communications).