HQW 2026: CMS & the Broader Policy Landscape: What It Means for Quality & Safety (On-Demand)-HQW 2026: CMS & the Broader Policy Landscape: What It Means for Quality & Safety

HQW 2026: CMS & the Broader Policy Landscape: What It Means for Quality & Safety

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Video Summary

Dr. Paul Keckley discussed how CMS shapes quality and safety across a complex U.S. healthcare system built on business-to-business relationships, not true consumer control. He argued that healthcare is a massive, fragmented industry with many regulators, standards, and metrics, making quality oversight difficult and constantly changing. CMS, he said, sits at the center of this system because it both funds and regulates major programs like Medicare and Medicaid.<br /><br />Keckley highlighted major forces influencing CMS and healthcare quality: rapid clinical innovation, advancing technologies and AI, unstable regulatory policy, capital market pressures, and growing consumer involvement. He warned that without a clear national healthcare direction, cost-cutting and financial pressures can erode quality and safety. He also emphasized problems like fraud, waste, public distrust, workforce strain, and the need for better measurement and accountability.<br /><br />He suggested CMS is increasingly focused on integrating behavioral health, social determinants of health, and guardrails for AI. He concluded by urging organizations to ask three key questions: Where is healthcare headed? How will quality and safety be defined in the future? And how can professional groups like NACU help lead that evolution?

Keywords

CMS

healthcare quality

patient safety

Medicare and Medicaid

healthcare regulation

AI in healthcare

behavioral health integration

social determinants of health