News: Volunteer physician payment experiment launched
April 21, 2016
CDI Strategies - Volume 10, Issue 16
CMS launched a voluntary five-year physician payment program dubbed the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) model, according to an April 11 press release. The CPC+ program builds on CMS’ Comprehensive Primary Care initiative launched in 2012, and allows participating practices to opt into one of two tracks.
Both tracks require physicians to demonstrate their support of patients with serious or chronic diseases, ability to give patients 24-hour access to care and health information, deliver preventative care, and encourage collaboration between patients and providers.
In Track 1, CMS will pay practices a monthly care management fee in addition to the fee-for-service payments under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. In Track 2, practices will also receive a monthly care management fee and, instead of full Medicare fee-for-service payments for Evaluation and Management services, will receive a hybrid of reduced Medicare fee-for-service payments and up-front comprehensive primary care payments for those services. In addition, Track 2 will also provide more comprehensive services for patients with complex medical and behavioral health needs, including, as appropriate, a systematic assessment of their psychosocial needs and an inventory of resources and supports to meet those needs.