Today, Premier and America’s Physician Groups recommended ways the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) can provide alternative payment models (APMs) much-needed financial stability during the COVID-19 pandemic while also preserving the future of the models and the role they play in moving healthcare from volume to value. In a letter to CMS Administrator Seema Verma, the groups urged the agency to:
- Allow organizations in APMs to move to no downside financial risk with modified upside risk, recognizing that losing the opportunity to achieve full shared savings would only compound the financial hardships they are experiencing due to COVID-19;
- Implement extreme and uncontrollable circumstances models across all CMS Innovation Center models, allowing model participants to maintain their current status;
- Provide an opportunity for entities to enter the Medicare Shared Savings Program and Direct Contracting for a January 1, 2021 start date;
- Accelerate pending payments to healthcare providers;
- Clarify quality mitigation approaches and expand these to other models; and
- Allow all ACOs 90 days to determine if they want to drop out of the program without penalty