NAACOS Grateful for Value Incentives’ Inclusion in Omnibus
National Association of ACOs (NAACOS) President and CEO Clif Gaus, Sc.D., issued the following statement on the year-end spending bill from Congress:
“We greatly appreciate Congress including a 3.5 percent value-based care incentive in a year-end spending bill. NAACOS and others have been calling on lawmakers to extend these critical incentives so that our health system can maintain momentum on its value-based care movement. Care for millions of patients will be better off because the health system is rewarding doctors for providing higher quality care at lower cost.
“While this is not the full 5 percent that providers have been receiving and NAACOS asked for, it does maintain some incentive to keep the momentum while Congress works on a long-term solution to encouraging adoption of alternative payment models. This should be considered a bridge toward greater reforms needed to encourage providers’ move into accountable care organizations. Without additional carrots and sticks, doctors and hospitals will continue to be stuck in a volume-driven, fee-for-service payment system that discourages keeping patients healthy and out of the hospital. Instead, we need more patients and providers in value-based models, and the next Congress will play a critical role in work to overhaul our physician payment system.”
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Contact:
David Pittman
Senior Policy Advisor
202-640-2689 or dpittman@naacos.com
