What Lessons Will CMS Apply to CPC+ Initiative?

May 23, 2016 | Healthcare Reform
By David Raths

CMS has long maintained that primary care is central to the transformation it is seeking to bring to the nation’s health system. Showing the strength of that conviction, in April the agency announced its largest-ever investment in advanced primary care to date: the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) model. The ambitious program builds on CMS’ original CPC initiative, which began in 2012 and is scheduled to end later this year.

CPC+, run by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), a branch of CMS that tests innovative payment systems, will be a five-year multi-payer program implemented in up to 20 regions. It could accommodate up to 5,000 practices, which would encompass more than 20,000 doctors and clinicians and the 25 million people they serve.