Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Archives - Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania

Feds Launch Medicare-Medicaid ACO Model

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation has announced a new Medicare-Medicaid Accountable Care Organization Model that it says

…is focused on improving quality of care and reducing costs for Medicare-Medicaid enrollees. The MMACO Model builds on the Medicare Shared Savings Program (Shared Savings Program), in which groups of providers take on accountability for the Medicare costs and quality of care for Medicare patients. Through the Model, CMS will partner with interested states to offer new and existing Shared Savings Program ACOs the opportunity to take on accountability for the Medicaid costs for their assigned Medicare-Medicaid enrollees.

cms In this new model, the Innovation Center

… seeks to encourage participation from safety-net providers in Alternative Payment Models. Medicare-Medicaid ACOs that qualify as “Safety-Net ACOs” will be eligible to receive pre-payment of Medicare shared savings to support the ACO’s investment in care coordination infrastructure.

The Innovation Center envisions pursuing such undertakings with six states, which will be chosen on a competitive basis.
Learn more about the Medicare-Medicaid Accountable Care Organization model here, on the Innovation Center’s web site.

PA Safety Net Admin2016-12-22T14:27:49+00:00December 22nd, 2016|Uncategorized|Comments Off

New ACO Model Targets Social Determinants of Health

The federal government is altering a previously announced accountable care organization model to help it target the social determinants of health of the patients it serves.
The Accountable Health Communities model, launched by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation in January, has been modified to target “community-dwelling Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries with unmet health-related social needs.”
According to a CMS fact sheet,

The foundation of the Accountable Health Communities Model is universal, comprehensive screening for health-related social needs of community-dwelling Medicare, Medicaid, and dual-eligible beneficiaries accessing health care at participating clinical delivery sites. The model aims to identify and address beneficiaries’ health-related social needs in at least the following core areas:

Housing instability and quality,
Food insecurity,
Utility needs,
Interpersonal violence, and
Transportation needs beyond medical transportation.

Addressing the health-related associated with social determinants of health has long been one of the major challenges Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals face.
CMS anticipated participating ACOs serving their members through annual screenings of needs, increased dissemination of information about how to address health-related social needs, and appropriate referrals to community resources to meet those needs.
Among the organizations invited to apply to participate are community-based groups, health care organizations, hospitals and health systems, institutions of higher education, and government entities. In recognition of the need for a more patient-focused approach than CMS proposed in January, the number of members participating ACOs must serve has been reduced the potential award amount has been raised.
To learn more about the Accountable Health Communities model, why it has been modified, what it hopes to accomplish, and how it will operate, see this CMS fact sheet.

PA Safety Net Admin2016-09-19T09:40:14+00:00September 19th, 2016|Uncategorized|Comments Off

CMS Demonstration to Tie Medical, Service Needs

A new federal demonstration program will attempt to help low-income Medicare and Medicaid recipients gain access to services that ultimately will improve their health.
The Accountable Health Communities project, developed by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation and launched by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is a $157 million demonstration program that
… aims to identify and address beneficiaries’ health-related social needs in at least the following core areas:

Housing instability and quality,
Food insecurity,
Utility needs,
Interpersonal violence, and
Transportation needs beyond medical transportation.

The federal government intends to provide grants of up to $4.5 million to as many of 44 projects that pursue better ways to identify selected patients’ non-medical needs and connect those patients with available services in their communities. The grant funding will pay for the programs, not the services themselves, and will be evaluated to determine their impact on the health of program participants and the health care services utilization of those participants in light of the program’s central objectives of testing whether addressing the targeted needs will improve participants’ health and reduce their health care utilization.
For further information about the Accountable Health Community project, see this Kaiser Health News report; this CMS news release; this CMS fact sheet; and “Accountable Health Communities — Addressing Social Needs through Medicare and Medicaid,” a New England Journal of Medicine article that describes the program, its goals, and its underlying rationale.

PA Safety Net Admin2016-01-07T06:00:43+00:00January 7th, 2016|Uncategorized|Comments Off

Push From Volume to Value Continues

As the end of 2015 nears, CMS has used its blog to reflect on its continued efforts to move the U.S. health care system from one that pays for the volume of care provided to one that pays for the value of that care.
The blog notes the replacement of the sustainable growth rate (SGR formula) with a new payment system that better supports patient-centered care; the creation of the Home Health Value-Based Purchasing model; and the introduction of Medicare reimbursement for advance care planning.
The blog also describes the many programs launched by the Affordable Care Act-created Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, including the Pioneer ACO Model, the Medicare Shared Savings Program, the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement program, the Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative, the Independence at Home demonstration, the Bundled Payment for Care Improvement Initiative, and the State Innovation Models initiative.
Together, CMS hopes these and other programs will help achieve its stated goal of paying for 30 percent of Medicare services through alternative payment models and making 85 percent of payments based on quality or value by the end of 2016.
For a better sense of how CMS sees these efforts pushing toward its policy objectives, see the commentary “Continuing the shift from volume to results in American healthcare” here, on the CMS blog.

PA Safety Net Admin2015-11-30T06:00:46+00:00November 30th, 2015|Affordable Care Act, Health care reform, Medicare|Comments Off

CMS Seeks to Jump-Start Medicaid Innovation

A new federal program seeks to encourage states to work faster to find ways to improve care and improve the health of their Medicaid patients and to reduce health care costs through payment and service delivery reforms.
The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) new Medicaid Innovation Accelerator Program is a collaboration between the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, the Medicare-Medicaid Coordination Office, and other federal agencies and centers. According to a CMS fact sheet, the program

…aims to jumpstart innovation in key areas while supporting states in their efforts to improve health, improve health care, and lower costs. In consultation with states and stakeholders, the IAP will develop strategically targeted functions aimed at advancing delivery system and associated payment reforms, aligned with transformation efforts underway in Medicare and the commercial market.

The program will develop resources to support innovation through four key functions: identifying and advancing new models of care delivery and payment; data analytics; improving quality measurement; and state-to-state learning, rapid-cycle improvement, and federal evaluation.
Learn more about the launch of the Medicaid Innovation Accelerator Program from this CMS fact sheet and go here for a more detailed description of the program and a summary of the resources surrounding it.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-07-17T14:49:18+00:00July 17th, 2014|Uncategorized|Comments Off

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