CMS to offer $10 million in grants to help physicians to transition to MACRA
The goal is to move towards the adoption of alternative payment models at very large scale and with very low cost, CMS said.
CMS is awarding $10 million over the next three years to organizations that will help clinicians transition to the new quality payment system outlined under MACRA.
This is the second round of funding that will go to 39 networks to offer support to doctors transitioning to the Quality Payment Program that came out of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, otherwise known as MACRA..
The goal is to move towards the adoption of alternative payment models at very large scale and with very low cost, CMS said.
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"Today's announcement continues to support clinicians across the country in transforming their practices by requiring competitive applications to have signed commitments to enroll a minimum 5,000 or more eligible clinicians and their practices in their network," Patrick Conway, CMS's acting principal deputy administrator, wrote in his blog post. "These clinician practices must be advanced in delivering high-quality and efficient care, so that they can quickly learn from the initiative, support improvement at scale, and join APMs (alternative payment models)."
Through the initiative, organizations awarded funds will identify, enroll, and provide tailored technical assistance to advanced practices in an effort to reduce Medicare, Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program expenditures by transitioning practices to coordinated care.
CMS will award cooperative agreement funding to successful applicants that may include healthcare delivery systems and health care delivery plans.
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Those applying should be able to provide quality improvement support to a large number of clinicians; are multi-regional or national in scope; are involved in generating evidence-based guidelines for clinical practice; are effectively using measurement through clinical registries and electronic health records; and are committed to expanding action to improve safety and person and family engagement.
Medical professional associations and specialty societies may also apply.
Applications will be accepted starting Friday. Applicants are encouraged, but not required, to submit a letter of intent by July 1.
Letters of intent may be submitted to transformation@cms.hhs.gov and are due to CMS on July 11.
CMS expects to announce the awards in the fall.
Twitter: @SusanJMorse
