Our Team

Liz Fowler

Deputy Administrator and Director

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

Deputy Director

Arrah Tabe-Bedward is the Deputy Director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMS Innovation Center) at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Ms. Tabe-Bedward has a strong background in Medicare and previously served as the Director of the Medicare Enrollment and Appeals Group (MEAG) at CMS. As MEAG’s Director, she was responsible for all eligibility, 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 for Medicare eligibility, enrollment and low-income subsidy operations. 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. In addition to MEAG, Ms. Tabe-Bedward worked in CMS’ Program Integrity Group and Office of Legislation. She has a J.D. from the University Of Maryland School Of Law and an M.S. in Public Service Management from DePaul University, and initially joined the federal government as a Presidential Management Fellow.

Ellen Lukens

Deputy Director

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.

The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation organization structure is outlined below:

Office of the Director

Executive Operations Staff

Business Services Group

• Division of Applications Design and Development
• Division of Budget and Administrative Services
• Division of Central Contracts Services
• Division of IT Operations and Security
• Division of Program and Project Management

Learning and Diffusion Group

• Division of Cross-Model Learning and Improvement
• Division of Improvement Networks and Regional Engagement
• Division of Model Learning Systems

Patient Care Models Group

• Division of Ambulatory Payment Models
• Division of Health Care Payment Models
• Division of Payment Models
• Division of Specialty Payment Models
• Division of Technical Model Support

Policy and Programs Group

• Division of Alternative Payment Model Infrastructure
• Division of Data Analytics
• Division of Portfolio Management and Strategy
• Division of Stakeholder Engagement and Policy

Research and Rapid Cycle Evaluation Group

• Division of Data, Research and Analytic Methods
• Division of Health Systems Research
• Division of Payment and Accountability Research
• Division of Special Populations Research

Seamless Care Models Group

• Division of Advanced Primary Care
• Division of Delivery System Demonstrations
• Division of Financial Risk
• Division of Seamless Infrastructure
• Division of Special Populations and Projects

State and Population Health Group

• Division of Health Care Delivery
• Division of Health Innovation and Integration
• Division of Multi-Payer Models
• Division of Population Health Incentives and Infrastructure
• Division of State Based Initiatives