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SNAG
ONE OF THE LAST SEATS AT JUNE BOOT CAMP
Just a few seats remain
available for our Summer 2022 Boot Camp. Don’t miss the opportunity to take a deep dive
into ACO data on June 16 and 17 in Nashville. This boot camp will provide an opportunity
to learn from ACOs with demonstrated success in harnessing data to drive positive
performance outcomes. We will take a deeper look into technical questions around
benchmarking, dashboards, claims and coding data. See the
full detailed agenda! This boot camp is designed for the ACO leadership team,
including executive directors, population health staff, as well as data, analytics, and
IT team members. Register NOW!
TELL
POLICYMAKERS YOU SUPPORT ACO REACH
There’s a growing number of
stakeholders and lawmakers asking the Biden administration to cancel the ACO REACH
Model. In fact, the House Progressive Caucus included repealing the ACO REACH Model as a
top priority. Their criticisms of the REACH Model could derail not only that model but
all value-based care models and ACOs. To push back, NAACOS is asking our members to call
and write their lawmakers today! You can help by calling the U.S. Capitol at
202-224-3121 to leave messages with your Representatives and Senators letting them know
you support ACO REACH. We are also encouraging you to leave a message for the executive
staff at the White House by calling 202-456-1111. The Biden administration listened to
value-based care stakeholders earlier in the year and redesigned the Direct Contracting
Model. As groups continue to call for a full and immediate repeal of Direct Contracting
and ACO REACH, the White House needs to hear from value-based care providers who support
these models and the broader shift to value. This advocacy is imperative so be sure to
tell policymakers how these types of programs are helping to provide patients with
better care.
REMINDER:
REVIEW AND SIGN ACTION FUND PRIOR APPROVAL FORMS
NAACOS has been
working to ramp up activity with our Action Fund that supports congressional candidates
who understand the interests of NAACOS members and value-based care providers. To comply
with federal election rules, NAACOS members must provide the NAACOS Action Fund with
prior approval before solicitation for funds can occur. Signing the approval does not
obligate you or your organization’s leadership to contribute. If you are your
organization’s primary contact with NAACOS, we encourage you to visit our website to review our frequently asked questions and electronically sign the
prior approval form.
NAACOS
FALL 2022 CONFERENCE REGISTRATION OPENS
Join us September
7–9 for the NAACOS Fall 2022 Conference at the Marriott Marquis in
Washington, D.C. The agenda will feature leading ACO experts and CMS officials sharing
timely and essential information for ACOs. Session topics will include:
- Policy updates for all ACOs, including ACO REACH and DCEs
- Quality measurement
- Community engagement
- Beneficiary engagement in ACOs vs MA
- Remote patient monitoring
- Provider performance and strategic growth
- Affiliate and preferred provider agreements
- Governance structures for ACOs
- How small ACOs and IPAs can survive without consolidation
- Attribution logic across models and plans
As always, the entire conference will be recorded, and all participants, both in-person
and virtual, will be able to view any missed sessions for six months following the
conference.
Register Early and Save!
Register before July 15 for the in-person conference and receive a discount of $300 per
person. Can’t attend in person? Register for our live webcast before July 15 and receive
a discount of $100 per person. Register now!
Hotel: Marriott Marquis Washington, D.C., 901
Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20001. All reservations must be made by August 1 to qualify for the
discounted room rate of $289 a night, single or double occupancy per night plus 14.95
percent sales tax (based upon availability).
Exhibitor and sponsor opportunities are now available! The
conference will feature exhibitors with products and services specifically for the
accountable care community. Reserve your space today!
DON’T
MISS WEBINAR ON MSSP APPLICATIONS: ACTIONS, TIPS, AND TRICKS
First
time applying for or renewing your MSSP contract for the 2023 calendar year? You won’t
want to miss our upcoming webinar on June 8 at 2:00 pm ET. Speakers Kyle O’Brien,
Associate General Counsel at Caravan Health, and Michael Markowicz, Deputy General
Counsel at Signify Health will provide ACOs with insight into the actions, tips, and
tricks to complete your application in a timely manner with the least amount of stress.
Learn what you need to complete during the initial application submission deadline on
June 29 and what can be finished in the RFI process. Learn about change request best
practices, what is needed to create and submit participant, affiliate/preferred provider
contracts, as well as when waiver documents and plans need to be completed and
submitted. Webinars are complimentary for NAACOS ACO members and business partners. Register Now!
CMS
PUBLISHES UPDATED 2023 MSSP APPLICATION DOCUMENTS
Recently, CMS
published several updated documents for the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP)
Performance Year (PY) 2023 application cycle. The window to submit a Notice of Intent to
Apply (NOIA) is open from June 1–7 at 12:00 pm ET, and an updated How to Submit a NOIA in ACO-MS resource is now available. As a
reminder, the NOIA is non-binding and must be submitted by the deadline in order to be
eligible to submit a full application. A detailed timeline of key application elements and deadlines is
also available. In addition, CMS has published updated sample applications, including
the initial application, renewal/early renewal application, SNF 3-day rule waiver application, and Beneficiary Incentive Program (BIP) application. See the Application Types & Timeline page for all updated
application resources and deadlines. As a reminder, dates are subject to change, and
NAACOS will continue to monitor and update our members.
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Welcome
ACO Member
Alliance
for Integrated Care of New York, LLC
New
York, NY
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CONGRESS
WEIGHS MENTAL HEALTH PRIORITIES
Following the Memorial Day Recess and
the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Congress is refocusing its efforts on gun reform
and mental health, including work around pediatric mental health supports. Last week,
the Senate Finance Committee released the first of several legislative drafts as part of
its mental health initiative. The draft text would enable the use of telehealth for
behavioral health counseling beyond the expiration of the public health emergency (PHE)
waivers. Other members are seeking to advance legislation that would help to address the
toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, particularly for children and young
adults. Also, this week the work of the GOP Healthy Futures Task Force is underway: that
group’s Modernization Subcommittee released its legislative priorities this week,
including safeguarding and maintaining expanded telehealth access. When Congress
returns, focus is likely to be on gun legislation, with a bipartisan group in the Senate
considering reforms to access to assault weapons and “red flag” rules.
TAKE
ADVANTAGE OF NAACOS RESOURCES
As a member of NAACOS, you have access
to many resources designed specifically for ACOs. For those considering multiple ACO
model participation options, access our ACO
Comparison Chart, our Alternative Payment Model (APM) overlap resource,
and a resource for those considering high-risk models like Direct
Contracting (DC). We also have resources to explain the new quality requirements for ACOs and information to explain
COVID-19 mitigation policies in effect for ACOs. Take full advantage of your
membership and access these resources.
NAACOS
SIGNS ON TO LETTER SUPPORTING SDOH LEGISLATION
Last week, NAACOS signed
on to a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, encouraging
the committee to continue to advance important social determinants of health (SDOH)
legislation. The letter, led by Aligning for Health, recommends the committee implement an
interagency council across federal programs to promote collaboration of SDOH activities,
provide grant funding for state, local, and Tribal agencies and organizations to address
SDOH, and educate future progress by funding research on SDOH best practices and
collecting and analyzing data on SDOH initiatives to evaluate effectiveness and develop
evidence-based approaches. Many of these could be accomplished through passage of the Social Determinants Accelerator Act (H.R. 2503/S. 3039) and the Leveraging Integrated Networks in Communities
(LINC) to Address
Social Needs Act (S. 509/H.R. 6072), both of which NAACOS has endorsed.
NAACOS
JOINS LETTER TO SENATE ON HCBS INVESTMENT
NAACOS has joined dozens of
national, state, and local stakeholder organizations on a letter urging the Senate to include investment in Medicaid Home
and Community-Based Services (HCBS) in the next legislative package. HCBS have enabled
people with disabilities and older adults to remain safely in their homes while
receiving high-quality, high-value care during the pandemic. Permanent investment in
Medicaid HCBS is needed to ensure these cost-effective and evidence-based services
remain available to patients. A recent study, published in the American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC), showed
that many ACOs are implementing home-based care programs, delivering a diverse set of
home-visit services to meet patients’ needs and address social determinants of health.
Despite the potential to lower spending for complex patients, home-based services are
often not reimbursable, and a lack of sustainable funding was found to be a main barrier
to expanding such programs.
CPC+
PY4 EVALUATION PUBLISHED
Recently, CMS released the fourth annual evaluation report for the Comprehensive Primary
Care Plus (CPC+) Model. A summary of the evaluation results is also available. The
independent evaluation found that CPC+ practices reduced acute care utilization and
acute inpatient expenditures, and it showed improvement on some quality measures. While
in total CPC+ practices did not reduce total Medicare expenditures without enhanced
payments, CPC+ practices simultaneously participating in MSSP did achieve reductions in
total expenditures in PY4, which coincides with Calendar Year 2020. CMS notes that this
variation is consistent with expectations about possible alignment between incentives
and supports offered by CPC+ and MSSP. Across both tracks (Track 1 and Track 2), about
half of CPC+ practices were also participating in an MSSP ACO at the end of PY4. The
CPC+ model was launched in 2017 to test the hypothesis that multi-payer payment reform,
actionable data, robust learning supports, and health IT support will enable care
delivery transformation in primary care practices. The model provides a framework for
transformation across access and continuity, care management, comprehensiveness and
coordination, patients and caregiver engagement, and planned care and population health.
NAACOS’ comparison of CPC+ and Medicare ACOs includes additional details
on how the programs interact.
PRIMARY
CARE ORGANIZATIONS DISCUSS VALUE-BASED CARE
In recent weeks, primary
care groups have come together to discuss the role of primary care in the shift to
value, how value-based care can be leveraged to strengthen primary care, and what the
future of primary care could look like. Last week, Primary Care for
America hosted an event, PrimaryCare22: See the Possibilities, convening national experts
to discuss the value of primary care to our health system and policy solutions to
improve primary care in the United States. Speakers included Center for Medicare and
Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) Director Liz Fowler and Chief Medical Officer Dora Hughes,
who discussed what CMMI is doing to test innovations in primary care payment and
delivery. The Primary Care Collaborative also hosted a webinar, Accountable Care Organizations: What the Research Tells Us,
discussing current evidence from MSSP, the role of primary care in the ACO model, and
how lessons from ACOs could be leveraged to strengthen primary care. The ACO model was
built on a foundation of comprehensive, coordinated primary care, and bolstering primary
care infrastructure could help support ACOs, and vice versa. Especially in light of
evidence from the recent CPC+ evaluation showing greater success among practices
simultaneously participating in CPC+ and MSSP, it is important to consider primary care
payment and delivery reform as an integral part of the overall shift to value-based
care.
GAO
ANNOUNCES NEW MEDPAC APPOINTMENTS
On May 26, the Government
Accountability Office (GAO) announced the appointment of five new members to the Medicare
Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), as well as the reappointment of two current
members. The newly appointed members whose terms begin in May 2022 are Robert
Cherry the Chief Medical and Quality Officer at University of California
Los Angeles Health; Kenny Kan the Vice President and Chief Actuary of
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield in Newark; Gregory Poulsen the Senior
Vice President at Intermountain Healthcare; and Scott Sarran the Chief
Medical Officer at MoreCare. In addition, Cheryl Damberg with the RAND
Corporation was appointed to fill the remaining term of a former commissioner. NAACOS
welcomes and looks forward to working with the new commissioners. We are also pleased to
see that several of the new appointees have extensive experience with value-based care
programs, including ACOs and DCEs.
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