News: Healthcare organizations urge congress to promote value-based care payment model

A group of healthcare organizations, led by the National Association of Accountable Care Organizations (NAACOS) have submitted a letter to congress, urging them to boost promotion of a value-based care payment model adoption. In their letter, the organizations noted the importance of alternative payment model (APM) participation, but stated providers need greater incentives to push them to join.

The letter urged congress to consider the Value in Health Care Act, which could help boost APM incentives. The act would change risk adjustment, freeze labeling ACOs as high or low revenue, and remove ACO beneficiaries from the regional benchmark. This last item would ensure ACOs are not penalized for achieving savings.

While the government created the Medicare Shared Savings Program, Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization Act, and Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, there are still 30 million Medicare beneficiaries who receive uncoordinated care, the letter states.

The letter also notes that CMS data shows low growth in ACO participation year-over-year. According to the organizations, APMs improve quality of care, as patients are more likely to receive high quality care as providers must meet certain quality measures in order to receive payment incentives.

“APMs focus on value over volume with a commitment to driving wellness and whole-person care,” the letter states. “Providers in APMs place a premium on identifying high-need patients, with an emphasis on delivering proactive, preventative care, chronic disease management, care management, and better transitions of care along with a myriad of other tactics that yield better patient outcomes.”

Editor’s note: The NAACOS letter can be found here. Additional ACDIS coverage of value-based payment models can be found here.