The Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) model is a new Affordable Care Act (ACA) initiative and CMS’ largest-ever multi-payer initiative to improve primary care nationwide, the agency announced Monday. The five-year CPC+ model will be implemented in as many as 20 regions and can accommodate up to 5,000 practices, which would involve more than 20,000 doctors and clinicians and the 25 million individuals they serve.
Under CPC+, CMS will pay practices a monthly fee to manage care for up to 25 million Medicare beneficiaries. To promote high-quality and high-value care, the practices will either get to keep or have to repay the up-front incentive payments based on their performance on utilization and quality metrics. The payments under this model encourage physicians to concentrate on health outcomes, as opposed to the volume of tests or visits, CMS said.
And although the initiative is ultimately meant to improve cost and quality while granting doctors and patients more control over health care delivery, it spotlights and encourages the use of home health, telemedicine and community-based services.