Pioneer Trail Becomes A Track

Fri, 06/05/2015 - 16:57

A new healthsprocket list summarizes key provisions and issues resulting from the just issued MSSP ACO Final Rule: Becker Hospital Review: 11 things to know about the MSSP ACO final rule.

The most significant item finalized with the final rule is the new MSSP Track 3, which is built upon selected components of the CMS Pioneer ACO model.

Here's CMS's summary of the objectives of note for this final rule:

- Creates a new Track 3, based on some of the successful features of the Pioneer ACO Model, which includes higher rates of shared savings, the prospective assignment of beneficiaries, and the opportunity to use new care coordination tools;

- Streamlines the data sharing between CMS and ACOs, helping ACOs more easily access data on their patients in a secure way for quality improvement and care coordination that can drive critical improvements in beneficiaries’ care;

- Establishes a waiver of the 3-day stay Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) rule for beneficiaries that are prospectively assigned to ACOs under Track 3; and

- Refines the policies for resetting ACO benchmarks to help ensure that the program continues to provide strong incentives for ACOs to improve patient care and generate cost savings, and announces CMS’ intent to propose further improvements to the benchmarking methodology later this year.

Want to peruse the 592 Final Rule document? Click here.