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NAACOS APPOINTS BHANSALI AND REYNA TO BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Henish Bhansali of Medical Home Network (MHN) and Megan Reyna of Advocate Health recently joined the NAACOS Board of Directors to fill open seats of members whose eligibility changed mid-term. As chief medical director, Dr. Bhansali leads value-based care transformation at MHN. At Advocate Health, Ms. Reyna is responsible for practice transformation for enterprise population health. Both have been active NAACOS members serving on committees and presenting at events. We look forward to their continued contributions to NAACOS and its efforts to advance accountable care.
The election of board seats representing single-entity ACO members will soon open. Later this month, primary contacts at single-entity ACOs will receive an email with information on the candidates and voting instructions.
LAWMAKERS KICK OFF PRE-ELECTION LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Congress returned this week for the pre-election funding sprint. The House and Senate are scheduled to be in session for just three weeks between now and Election Day. While passing a short-term government funding extension will be the most pressing issue facing Congress in September, we also expect the health committees to begin outlining their legislative priorities for the end-of-year and beyond.
To help influence this process, NAACOS members are on Capitol Hill this week meeting with lawmakers asking them to prioritize our congressional priorities, which include:
- Continuing financial incentives to join APMs;
- Ensuring APM benchmarks do not penalize providers for prior success; and
- Removing regulatory burden and increasing flexibility for providers.
NAACOS RESOURCES ON VBC ARRANGEMENTS ACROSS PAYERS
NAACOS aims to support members in value-based care (VBC) arrangements across all payers. In partnership with AMA and AHIP, we released playbooks on best practices for data sharing and payment arrangements. Hear how members have implemented these best practices in the recorded webinar series taking a deep dive on the playbook. We also invite you to join the Payer-Provider Forum at the NAACOS Fall Conference to hear from both payers and providers on successful VBC arrangements and share best practices, challenges, and solutions for building optimal partnerships.
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ACO REACH UPDATES: 2023 SETTLEMENTS DELIVERED, AWAITING EMBARGO LIFT
- 2023 Settlements Delivered. REACH participants were given their 2023 performance results, which are currently embargoed. Upon public release, use our media kit to help promote your success. NAACOS will also promote the success of our members.
- Claims Processing Issues. NAACOS recently met with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) to share the concerns of ACOs regarding claims reprocessing and repayment. CMMI indicated that it is aware of the issue and working across the agency to explore strategies to mitigate the disruption and burden of repayment. CMMI intends to share more information soon.
- Financial and Quality Methodology papers for 2025 are now available on 4i. This includes the 2025 adjusted ratebook.
- Upcoming CMS Offices Hours. CMMI will hold office hours on September 26 to discuss payments and 2022 adjustments as well as the claims processing issue.
2023 MIPS SCORES NOW AVAILABLE
CMS recently shared 2023 Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) performance feedback including associated MIPS payment adjustment information for the 2025 payment year.
- Sign in to the Quality Payment Program website using your Health Care Quality Information Systems (HCQIS) Access Roles and Profile (HARP) credentials and click “view feedback” on the homepage to select your organization.
- Targeted Reviews can be requested if you believe there is an error. Request a Targeted Review by October 11 at 8:00 pm ET in the Quality Payment Program (QPP) website when signed-in using your HARP credentials.
GET EARLY RATE FOR FALL 2024 CONFERENCE, AVAILABLE NOW FOR A SHORT TIME
We’ve brought back the early registration rate for those not yet registered for the Fall 2024 Conference! Save THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($300) off the standard registration rate until Friday, September 13. Register now for the conference to be held at the Marriott Marquis in Washington D.C., October 16–18.
**Discount is not valid on registrations already submitted. Discount is valid for both in-person and virtual registrations.**
The fall conference agenda features leading value-based care experts and CMS officials sharing timely and essential information for ACOs. Meet NAACOS’ incoming CEO, Jeff Micklos, at the opening plenary featuring Jon Blum, CMS principal deputy administrator and chief operating officer and author, Dr. Robbie Pearl, who will speak about his new book ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine. NAACOS will host a book signing with complimentary books for in-person participants following the conclusion of the opening plenary.
SUBMIT QUESTIONS/TOPICS FOR CMS TOWN HALL
We close each NAACOS conference with a CMS Town Hall session that provides an opportunity for attendees to have an open dialogue with leadership at CMS. Submit your questions and topics for discussion.
DIAMOND AND PLATINUM SPONSORSHIPS STILL AVAILABLE
Interested in sponsoring the Robbie Pearl book signing, holding a Friday breakfast session, or sponsoring the reception? NAACOS Partners are the only non-ACOs allowed to attend, exhibit and sponsor NAACOS conferences. These sponsorship packages also include booth space, complimentary registrations, and prime visibility. To sign up for sponsorships, please contact Emily Perron.
TUNE IN TO THE ACO SHOWDOWN ON OCTOBER 1
If you want to learn how ACOs are using vendor products to innovate their care delivery, analytics, or business management, the NAACOS ACO Showdown is a fun interactive way to do so. Our first ACO Showdown is on October 1 from 2:00 to 3:00 pm ET. Viewers will listen to presentations from three ACOs that have worked with Clinigence Health, an analytics vendor, and created innovative programs or processes for a positive ROI. After short presentations, the audience will have time to ask questions and engage with the contestants. Next the audience will vote, and the ACO with the most votes will take first place and receive a conference registration and gift card. Second and third place participants will each receive gift cards to share with their team members.
For this first event, you will hear from Justin Leitzen, CEO, ProviDRs Care, Rhonda Hamilton, Chief Operating Officer, Silverstate ACO, and Marisela Irizarry, Vice President of Operations, VarMed Management Group who will provide an overview of their innovative approach to health care improvement activities in collaboration with Clinigence Health data vendor. While these events will be recorded and available for future viewing from the NAACOS website, you only get to vote for your favorite innovation if you attend live on October 1 from 2:00 to 3:00 pm ET. Register now to attend this free fun event!
UPCOMING PRACTICE TRANSFORMATION LEARNING LABS: ALL ABOUT DATA
Each Learning Lab is a six-to-12-month series dedicated to a value-based care topic. Past learning labs have focused on Medicaid contracting, annual wellness visits, and specialist engagement. Our current series focuses on many aspects of practice transformation and occurs on the 4th Friday of the month from 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm ET, for most months through June 2025. The September and October sessions will focus on data used in practice transformation with September’s meeting focusing on the type of data available to ACOs and using it to find opportunity and track results. The October meeting will be a bit more advanced and dive into combing data from multiple resources, when and how to use it, and when additional platforms and resources are more helpful or needed. Our presenters for these sessions include Kamal Sumar MD, MBA, CPE, market vice president of population health, CommonSpirit, North Central Arizona Accountable Care, and Rachel Sabatino, CIN Analytics Lead, Christiana Care. Register now to join the Practice Transformation Leaning Lab series and the data discussion that begins on September 27, 2024, at 12:00 pm ET. Contact Karen Fetterolf for registration questions or issues.
NAACOS PARTNERS – REGISTER FOR THE UPCOMING PARTNER CALL
Join us for an engaging call exclusively for Partner Circle, Business Partners, and Alliance Partners on September 26 from 12:00 – 1:00 pm ET. NAACOS staff will provide an update on the fall conference, as well as reveal the 2025 partner prospectus highlighting upcoming sponsorship opportunities to showcase your brand. Don’t miss this chance to interact with NAACOS staff and to fully utilize the benefits of your partnership. This meeting is open to partners only. Register Now!
SPONSORED WEBINAR – AN ECQM LEAP: POM’S STRATEGIC TRANSITION INTO THE FUTURE
Join NAACOS business partner Medisolv on September 26 at 2:00 pm ET for an enlightening webinar that dives deep into the transition to eCQM (electronic clinical quality measure) reporting. Featuring firsthand insights from the experts at Physician Organization of Michigan ACO (POM) and Medisolv, you’ll hear about what it took to get all practices generating a valid QRDA I file and the challenges they encountered while gathering data from multiple EHRs. This session is crucial for anyone involved in ACO quality reporting. Gain insights that will help you prepare for a digital-first future. Open to ACOs and business partners – register today!
UP TO $2M FOR ACOS TO PARTICIPATE IN CLINICAL TRIAL OF AWVS AND GRACE
Are you interested in understanding your high need older adult patients, testing optimal ways to care for them, and reducing avoidable spending? If so, we are seeking ACOs interested in joining a Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute-funded comparative effectiveness study of AWVs versus AWVs augmented with an evidence-based geriatric intervention – the GRACE model for high-need, high-cost older adults. This study pays for practice-based training of optimized AWVs, training in technical support of the GRACE model, and evaluation of these two interventions in your health system. If you are interested in seeing how an evidence-based intervention that includes a home evaluation might work in your ACO, this project may be a great way to pilot evidence-based care models with a wraparound evaluation study. Eligible ACOs will need eight primary care practices that are able to recruit a total of 720 high-need older adult patients over 18 months (90 patients/practice). Four practices will be randomized to a structured AWV and four to AWV+GRACE. ACOs who are selected for participation will get start-up funds and up to $1.4 million to support participation in the project. If interested in learning more about the project or the GRACE program, please contact Jennifer Perloff or Christine Ritchie.
| WHAT WE’RE WATCHING: NEWS ABOUT ACOS AND HEALTH CARE |
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- In this Health Affairs journal article, researchers find that Massachusetts’ Medicaid ACO program improved quality of care and outcomes for pregnant and postpartum patients.
- In a Health Affairs blog, health policy thought leaders discuss ways to improve the primary care payment system, including to better reward value.
- The Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) is requesting applications for the next cohort of its Medicare primary care population-based payment learning collaborative, which supports states in the shift away from fee-for-service primary care.
- The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) held a public meeting last week to discuss the financial outlook for Medicare, cost sharing for outpatient services at critical access hospitals, and Medicare’s measurement of rural provider quality.
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