On Nov. 30, CMS announced it was canceling two mandatory bundled payment models and lowering the number of providers required to participate in a third.
As 2018 approaches, the agency continues to signal a shift away from mandatory Medicare incentive programs in favor of voluntary initiatives that give providers more flexibility and attempt to reduce the burden of participation in value-based care programs.
CMS said it was finalizing the cancellation of the Episode Payment Models (EPMs) and the Cardiac Rehabilitation (CR) Incentive Payment Model, both of which were scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2018. In addition, CMS said it is reducing the number of mandatory geographic areas participating in the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) Model from 67 to 34, and will make participation voluntary for all low-volume and rural hospitals.
CMS also said on Nov. 30 it will review a list of 32 measures that fall under Medicare’s quality-reporting and value-based purchasing programs. This is a vast reduction compared to the 100 measures considered last year, and falls in line with agency’s Meaningful Measures initiative to identify quality measures that have the greatest impact on patient care and health outcomes.
Check out the links below to learn more about these changes:
- “CMS finalizes hip fracture and cardiac bundled payment programs cancellations” (Healthcare Dive)
- “CMS makes it official: Two mandatory bundled-pay models canceled” (Modern Healthcare)
- “CMS trims list of possible Medicare quality measures” (Modern Healthcare)
And to find out more about what quality changes are on the horizon for next year, be sure to register for our Dec. 6 webinar, “The Inside Scoop: What Medical Practices Can Expect in 2018,” with practice management expert Elizabeth Woodcock, MBA, FACMPE, CPC.
