CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure and CMS Innovation Heart Director Elizabeth Fowler proceed to forge forward with the Biden-Harris Administration’s plans to guage and streamline the choice fee fashions being examined on the Innovation Heart. The latest instance, introduced late final month, contains the redesign and renaming of the controversial International and Skilled Direct Contracting (GPDC) mannequin that goals to introduce value-based fee preparations in conventional Medicare. The newly introduced mannequin, renamed the Accountable Care Group Realizing Fairness, Entry, and Neighborhood Well being (ACO REACH) Mannequin, aligns with CMS’s restated objectives for the Innovation Heart—as outlined in its October 2021 “strategic refresh” white paper—to drive accountable care, advance well being fairness, help care improvements, enhance entry by addressing affordability, and accomplice to attain system transformation.
CMS famous it had redesigned the stalled Trump-era GPDC mannequin to advance the Administration’s dedication to well being fairness “and in response to stakeholder suggestions and participant expertise.” Reasonably than scrap the controversial mannequin altogether as some suppliers, affected person advocates, and coverage makers had known as for—elevating issues it could threaten affected person care and outcomes “as a result of encroachment of profit-driven organizations on their care,”— CMS selected to regulate the mannequin. In line with the CMS reality sheet, the objectives of the redesigned mannequin are to enhance high quality of care and care coordination for sufferers in conventional Medicare, particularly for sufferers in underserved communities.
ACO REACH is totally different from the GPDC mannequin in a number of methods:
- All contributors shall be required to develop and implement a “strong” well being fairness plan to determine underserved communities and implement actions to measurably cut back well being disparities of their beneficiary populations. Individuals will even be required to gather beneficiary-reported demographic and social wants information.
- CMS launched a well being fairness benchmark adjustment to higher help care supply and coordination for sufferers in underserved communities, and expanded the vary of companies which may be ordered by Nurse Practitioners to enhance entry to care.
- With a stronger emphasis on provider-led organizations as mannequin contributors, taking part suppliers or their proxies should maintain not less than 75% management of every ACO’s governing physique, in comparison with solely 25% within the GPDC. The ACO Attain Mannequin will even require the ACO’s governing physique to incorporate two separate people (with voting rights) to function a Medicare beneficiary consultant and a client advocate. Whereas the previous mannequin required the governing board to incorporate a beneficiary consultant and a client advocate, they may very well be the identical particular person and so they weren’t required to carry voting rights.
- CMS will apply extra stringent screening protocols of candidates and can extra intently monitor mannequin contributors to make sure compliance with beneficiary protections. The mannequin contains measures for enhanced transparency and information sharing on the contributors’ care high quality and monetary efficiency, in addition to stronger protections towards “inappropriate coding and threat rating development.”
Just like the GPDC mannequin, contributors in ACO REACH can select from two voluntary risk-sharing choices: (1) The Skilled Possibility with 50% shared financial savings/losses and first care capitation fee or (2) the International Possibility with 100% shared financial savings/losses and both major care capitation fee or complete care capitation fee. And, additionally just like the GPDC mannequin, ACO REACH provides three participation varieties primarily based both on the ACO’s diploma of expertise serving sufferers with conventional Medicare or the ACO’s affected person inhabitants: (1) Customary ACOs, (2) New Entrant ACOs, and (3) Excessive Wants Inhabitants ACOs.
Extra particulars on the ACO REACH mannequin’s necessities may be discovered on the Innovation Heart web site, together with a useful chart evaluating the GDPC and ACO REACH fashions.
The GPDC mannequin will transition to the ACO REACH mannequin on the finish of this calendar 12 months and can run by means of 2026. On March 7, CMMI introduced on the ACO REACH webpage it had opened the appliance course of for the primary cohort of ACO REACH contributors—for Efficiency 12 months 2023 (PY2023); functions shall be accepted by means of Friday, April twenty second at 11:59 PM. Present mannequin contributors should have a robust compliance report within the present mannequin and agree to fulfill the brand new mannequin’s necessities by January 1, 2023, by means of execution of an Amended and Restated Participation Settlement with CMS with a view to shift into ACO REACH.
CMS’ choice to revamp the GDPC mannequin has been met with blended reactions from stakeholders. The Nationwide Affiliation of ACOs (NAACOS) stated in a press launch that it’s “the correct choice for each conventional Medicare sufferers and the way forward for value-based care,” whereas others state the mannequin redesign doesn’t tackle the direct contracting mannequin’s elementary issues. America’s Doctor Teams, which represents greater than 300 U.S. medical teams, stated it was “terribly happy” that CMS is retaining the direct contracting mannequin with “necessary revisions.” Group buying group, Premier, stated the redesigned mannequin improves on direct contracting by placing suppliers within the driver’s seat.
In CMS’ press launch saying the brand new mannequin, Liz Fowler, CMS Deputy Administrator and Director of the CMS Innovation Heart stated, “Underneath the ACO REACH Mannequin, well being care suppliers can obtain extra predictable income and use these {dollars} extra flexibly to fulfill their sufferers’ wants — and to be extra resilient within the face of well being challenges like the present public well being pandemic. The underside line is that ACOs can enhance well being care high quality and make folks more healthy, which might additionally result in decrease complete prices of care.”
CMS shall be internet hosting webinars concerning the ACO REACH Mannequin, data for which may be accessed through the Innovation Heart web site or by signing up for the ACO REACH listserv. We are going to proceed to observe updates and developments referring to the brand new mannequin. In case your group or doctor group is fascinating in making use of to the ACO REACH mannequin, please contact us and we’d be blissful to debate the mannequin’s necessities and whether or not the mannequin is true to your group.
