The CMS Innovation Center has selected 500 primary care practices in seven regions representing over two thousand primary care doctors in seven markets across the country to participate in their Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative.
Under the Initiative, CMS will pay primary care practices a care management fee to support enhanced coordinated services on behalf of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries. Simultaneously, participating commercial, state, and other federal insurance plans are offering enhanced payment to primary care practices designed to provide quality primary care to their members.
The Initiative started in the fall of 2011 with CMS soliciting a diverse pool of commercial health plans, state Medicaid agencies, and self-insured businesses to work alongside Medicare to support comprehensive primary care.
At this point, public and private health plans in Arkansas, Colorado, New Jersey, Oregon, New York’s Capital District-Hudson Valley region, Ohio and Kentucky’s Cincinnati-Dayton region, and the Greater Tulsa region of Oklahoma signed letters of intent with CMS to participate. The markets were selected in April 2012 based on the percentage of the total population covered by payers who expressed interest in joining this partnership.
The next step was for eligible practices in each market to apply to participate and now they will start to deliver healthcare services in the fall of 2012. CMS estimates that over 300,000 Medicare beneficiaries will be served by providers through this initiative.
Go to www.innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/Comprehensive-Primary-Care-Initiative for more information.
