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ALLIANCE FOR VALUE-BASED PATIENT CARE HIGHLIGHTS VALUE IN ACTION
The Alliance for Value-Based Patient Care, of which NAACOS is a founding member, continues to collect and publish stories about patient care that highlight the great work our members do to improve patient care. If you have a patient story you’d like to share, please contact David Pittman. Check out the latest patient stories from On Belay Health Solutions and Buena Vida y Salud.
ADVANCED PRIMARY CARE MANAGEMENT SERVICES
New coding and payment for Advanced Primary Care Management (APCM) under Medicare Part B was established beginning January 1, 2025. These codes bundle care management and communication technology-based services and were added to the definition of primary care services used in Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) assignment for the current performance year. Details can be found in NAACOS’ analysis of the 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule final rule. NAACOS is looking to support our members in implementation of APCM services. If your organization is currently, or in the process of planning for operationalizing and billing for APCM codes, please share your feedback with us.
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NAACOS SUPPORTS BILL TO EXTEND APM INCENTIVES AND ADDRESS PHYSICIAN PAYMENT CUTS
Last week, members of the House of Representatives introduced legislation to extend Advanced Alternative Payment Model (APM) incentives and mitigate physician payment cuts. NAACOS encourages you to contact your lawmakers in Congress and ask them to support these bills and encourage congressional leadership to address these issues as part of government funding negotiations in March. Contact Robert Daley if you need assistance with outreach to your members of Congress.
- The Preserving Patient Access to Accountable Care Act (H.R. 786) would extend Medicare’s advanced APM incentive payments at 3.53 percent for Payment Year 2027 and freeze qualifying thresholds at 2024 levels. NAACOS applauds Representatives LaHood, Dunn, DelBene, and Schrier for their leadership in addressing this issue.
- The Medicare Patient Access and Practice Stabilization Act (H.R. 879) would stop harmful Medicare physician payment cuts that took effect this year and provide physician practices with a 2 percent payment update for the remainder of 2025. NAACOS commends Representatives Murphy, Panetta, Joyce, Ruiz, Miller-Meeks, Schrier, Tenney, Bera, Miller, and Krishnamoorthi for introducing the bill.
OTHER HAPPENINGS ON THE HILL
- Budget Fights Ahead. Congress has until March 14 to reach an agreement to extend federal government funding and address a long list of health priorities and extenders. As the clock ticks down to March, congressional leaders have made little progress towards a bipartisan agreement to extend government funding. Progress has further slowed as congressional Democrats continue to push back on the Trump administration’s plans to freeze funding for certain health and international aid programs. House Republicans also returned this week from their Florida retreat without a plan to advance President Trump’s legislative agenda via budget reconciliation. These discussions are expected to kick into high gear in the coming days as leaders look for a path forward.
- RFK Nomination Moves Forward. On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee favorably reported Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to the full Senate. Kennedy appeared in both the Senate Finance and HELP Committees last week facing questions about the President’s “Make American Healthy Again” agenda and his previous positions on vaccine safety. A final confirmation vote before the full Senate is expected soon. The committees will now begin the process for vetting and considering subcabinet positions at HHS, including Deputy Secretary, CMS Administrator and others.
CMS TO REPROCESS 2023 QPP PAYMENT ADJUSTMENTS FOR SOME CLINICIANS
NAACOS has heard learned that some ACOs received communication from CMS that their 2021 performance period/2023 payment year Quality Payment Program (QPP) calculations were erroneous. The communication indicates that the ACO has at least one clinician that received a negative adjustment for not reporting MIPS when they should have received a lump sum APM Incentive Payment in the 2023 payment year. Further, the ACOs do not need to take action as CMS will work with Medicare administrative contractors to reprocess claims for affected clinicians early this year.
Due to the communication freeze at CMS, we’re unable to determine how many clinicians and ACOs are affected. If you have questions about this topic or have heard from CMS about this, please contact us at [email protected].
PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP DETAILS NOW AVAILABLE
In conjunction with the Spring 2025 Conference main meeting on April 23-24 at the Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor, NAACOS will hold three concurrent pre-conference workshops on Tuesday, April 22 from 1:00 – 5:00 pm. These workshops require separate registration. The topics for the three workshops are below with detailed descriptions and learning objectives on our website.
- From Data to Point-of-Care Decisions: Crafting a Scalable Data & Analytics Infrastructure
- Driving Innovation in Value-Based Relationships through Specialty Care Engagement
- Balancing the Quality Tightrope
The early registration and the hotel discount deadlines for the conference are February 28. Make sure to register and book your room early in order to receive these discounts!
Can’t attend in person? Register for our live webcast before February 28 and receive a discount of $100 per person.
Sponsorships and exhibit space is going quickly! Reserve your spot early!
REGISTER FOR NEW WEBINARS ON ACO COMPLIANCE IN 2025
Ensure your ACO is ready for Performance Year 2025! NAACOS has partnered with Wilems Resource Group to offer ACOs an updated Compliance Manual for 2025. Join Kimberly Busenbark, CEO of Wilems Resource Group, in one of two complimentary webinars to hear about updates to the regulations and how this will affect your ACO’s policies and procedures, monitoring and operational processes. An MSSP webinar will be held Wednesday, February 19 from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. ET, and a REACH webinar will be held Thursday, February 20 from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. ET. Register now to make sure you’re in compliance!
The Compliance Manual is a necessary tool designed to provide template policies to help leadership ensure compliance with program requirements. It includes fully editable foundational policy templates your organization can customize to fit individual needs, version control and policy record retention capabilities, important steps to consider when forming policies and procedures, easy to use functionality, and more. Subscribe today!
DON'T MISS THE FINAL PRACTICE TRANSFORMATION LEARNING LAB, FEBRUARY 28
NAACOS will hold our final session of the Practice Transformation Learning Lab this month. Watch the recordings on the Learning Lab webpage This final session will focus on transforming your practice through value-based care efforts in the post-acute space. You will hear from Andrea Charmley, LMSW, MPH, executive director, West Michigan ACO, and Heather Despres Cook, MSPT, value-based care navigator, care management, Corewell Health, about their post-acute program and their approach to working in this space. If you have not already registered for the Practice Transformation Leaning Lab, register now to join this final session and add the date to your calendar. Learning Labs are held in an open Zoom meeting format for peer-to-peer communications. Contact Karen Fetterolf for registration questions or issues.
JOIN OUR AFFINITY GROUPS AND LEARN WITH PEERS
Don’t miss out on these upcoming shared learning opportunities for ACO colleagues in similar professional roles. If you have not registered yet in 2025, please use the links below to get the 2025 meetings and login information to add to your calendar!
Clinical and Performance Improvement
February 11, August 12, and February 10, 2026, from 3:00–4:00 pm ET
Register for Clinical and Performance Improvement Affinity Group
Compliance and Legal
February 18, August 17, and February 17, 2026, from 3:00–4:00 pm ET
Register for Compliance and Legal Affinity Group
Federal Government Lobbying
February 20, April 17, June 18, August 21, October 16, December 18 from 2:00–3:00 pm ET
Participation is limited to NAACOS members and business partners that are registered federal lobbyists or policy professionals. These calls will be an informal forum for the NAACOS members to stay closely aligned on advocacy efforts in Congress and with the Administration.
Register for Federal Government Lobbying Affinity Group
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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING: NEWS ABOUT ACOS AND HEALTH CARE |
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