PCC and Better Health--Now submit Comments to CMS on Medicare Advantage Request for Information

Medicare Advantage (MA) Is growing part of Medicare and influencing new primary care models. In a August 31st response to a recent CMS Request for Information , PCC’s Better Health-NOW Campaign called for policy changes that reform both how much we invest in primary care as well as how we pay for it – to assure everyone has access to primary care they can trust. PCC’s letter:

• Measure primary care spending and its impact on Medicare Advantage beneficiary outcomes.
• Improve CMS capacity to collect, standardize, report, and where practicable and effective, stratify data to facilitate comparisons across all parts of Medicare (traditional fee-for-service, ACOs/MSSP, and Medicare Advantage).
• Use plan design and payment reform to encourage proactive care and to remove cost and other barriers to beneficiaries accessing preventive care, integrated behavioral health care and chronic care.
• Encourage MA plans to use primary care payment reform and investment to drive practice level innovation, support comprehensive primary care, and reduce administrative burden, as recommended in the 2021 National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) report, Implementing High-Quality Primary Care.
• CMS should use a small, robust, valid set of quality measures and incentives that reflect the contribution of primary care. Quality measurement should facilitate comparison across all parts of the Medicare program. Performance incentives should reward both high achievement and improvement in beneficiary outcomes and experience of care in all communities with respect to behavioral and physical health.

Read the full letter here.