The American Medical Association and 19 other healthcare and physician organizations are imploring CMS to modify its accountable care organization benchmarking methodology, according to Healthcare Finance News.
Here are five points:
1. While the organizations applaud CMS for some of its changes, they argue there is room to improve its ACO benchmarking methodology.
2. Instead of penalizing ACOs, the groups want CMS to maintain the current policy that takes into account savings in rebased benchmarks.
3. The groups are imploring CMS to revamp the proposal and reopen ACO determinations to include more opportunities for ASCs. The AMA and organizations want CMS to truncate the ACO timeframe from four years to two years.
4. In their comments, the organizations voiced support for CMS' proposal to integrate regional cost data into benchmarks to attract new providers and retain current providers. The groups want CMS to give ACOs significant flexibility when transitioning to regional benchmarks.
5. The groups implore CMS to exclude ACOs in the area when assessing fee-for-service Medicare performance.
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