Policy Initiatives:

Medicare Reform

The Mission

To empower Medicare beneficiaries by increasing their control of their decisions and finances while improving health outcomes and lowering costs.

Download Initiative Info
Director

Demetrios L. Kouzoukas

Demetrios L. Kouzoukas is Director of Paragon Health Institute’s Medicare Reform Initiative.  He was the Chief Executive of the Medicare program at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) from 2017 to 2021.

Guiding Principles
  • Patients are best positioned to determine the value of health care services, working with their health care providers.
  • Prices are best for patients when determined by economic value rather than government and when they are known in advance of receiving services.
  • Patients benefit from more options for doctors, hospitals, and insurance plans.
  • Governments’ use of non-market-based methods to determine reimbursement leads to significant amounts of spending on low-value services and products and underpayment for high-value services and products, stifles beneficial innovation, and, because of Medicare’s size, distorts payments throughout the health care system.
  • Intermediate entities that can manage financial risk and ensure quality of care are important to the transition to value-based care within the Medicare program.

Bringing it to life.

Goal 1.

Increase Medicare Beneficiaries’ Control Over Their Health Care.
Remove regulations that restrict choice of coverage and care.

Permit beneficiaries to control more of the program’s financing.

Improve the accessibility and quality of information important for beneficiaries’ decisions.

Goal 2.

Enhance the Doctor-Patient Relationship.
Eliminate regulatory burdens that raise costs for health care providers without benefitting patients.

Permit plans and providers to take on greater accountability for care, while maintaining beneficiary choice.

Goal 3.

Ensure Sustainability and Value for Beneficiaries and Taxpayers.
Slow Medicare’s cost growth.

Reduce waste, fraud, and abuse in the program.

Recent Work

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Paragon Health Institute (PHI) is a non-partisan, not-for-profit policy research institute. Any views, beliefs, or opinions expressed by PHI’s Public Advisors are those of its Advisors and do not necessarily reflect the official policies or positions of PHI or its employees. Any views, beliefs, or opinions expressed by PHI or its employees belong solely to PHI and do not necessarily reflect those of PHI’s Public Advisors.