SPRING CONFERENCE STARTS TUESDAY! STILL TIME TO REGISTER!
Leaders from ACOs and other VBC organizations will gather at the NAACOS Spring Conference on April 22-24 in Baltimore to cut through the noise and get straight to the industry trends that matter most. Hear directly from industry experts shaping the future of accountable care. Connect with more than 600 colleagues to explore how they’re navigating today’s challenges and opportunities. This is your chance to gain the critical insights needed to drive success in 2025 and beyond.
Full Agenda
Registration is still open and will remain open until the conference. Can’t attend in person? Register for the live webcast. As always, the entire conference will be recorded. All participants, both in-person and virtual, will be able to view any sessions they missed live for six months following the conference.
| NAACOS CONNECT IS LAUNCHING TODAY!
NAACOS is excited to announce our brand new and improved version of our listservs –NAACOS Connect! NAACOS Connect runs on the Telegram platform, which is a free messaging app you can access on your phone or computer. We’re using it as a flexible way for members to stay in touch. You’ll be able to ask questions of peers and share your experiences, and you will have the ability to search previous discussion topics. This is a members-only benefit, and members will receive an email later today with further information and an invitation to join. Please make sure your IT team whitelists emails from <@mg.naacos.com> to prevent these emails from being blocked.
| • • •NAACOS Advocacy |
ACO SIGN-ON LETTERS TO CONGRESS AND CMS
Policymakers need to hear from you about issues affecting accountable care. We encourage you to sign these two letters to demonstrate the need for (1) Congress to extend Medicare’s advanced APM incentives and (2) CMS to address the inaccurate trend factor in MSSP. The deadline to sign-on is Wednesday, April 30.
Advanced APM Incentives Sign-On Letter to Congress— NAACOS and our partners in the Alliance for Value-Based Patient Care are organizing a sign-on letter calling for lawmakers to extend Medicare’s advanced APM incentives and restore previous qualifying thresholds. Congress failed to extend these critical incentives at the end of 2024 and the qualifying thresholds have increased significantly for Performance Year 2025. This sign-on letter is open to a broad range of stakeholders, including health care associations, ACOs, health systems, physician practices, and other value-based care providers. Contact @Robert Daley if you would like to submit a list of practices in your ACO or for more information.
Sign APM Letter
ACPT Sign-On Letter to CMS— NAACOS is leading a sign-on letter asking CMS to reweight the Accountable Care Prospective Trend (ACPT) to zero. CMS created the ACPT to address the impact of the benchmark ratchet. The 2024 ACPT inaccurately projected spending, arbitrarily lowering benchmarks for ACOs. This sign-on letter is open to ACO entities and health care associations. Contact @Aisha Pittman with questions.
Sign ACPT Letter |
ADVOCACY ON SKIN SUBSITUTES CONTINUES
Last week, The New York Times published a report Medicare Bleeds Billions on Pricey Bandages, and Doctors Get a Cut highlighting the escalating costs and regulatory concerns surrounding Medicare’s coverage of skin substitutes. The article details the dramatic increase in Medicare spending on these products and features the experiences of three NAACOS members—Bloom Healthcare, Physicians of Southwest Washington, and VillageMD—and includes data and analysis from the Institute for Accountable Care.
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• • • Welcome New Partners |
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Congressional Updates |
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SENATE LAWMAKERS INTRODUCE BILL TO EXTEND ADVANCED APM INCENTIVES
Senators John Barrasso (R-WY), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Peter Welch (D-VT), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) introduced the Preserving Access to Accountable Care Act. This important legislation would extend Medicare’s advanced Alternative Payment Model (APM) incentive for one year at 3.53 percent and restore qualifying thresholds to their previous levels. A NAACOS statement is available.
Please help us build support for the legislation by contacting your members of Congress today and asking them to cosponsor this bill or the House version of the bill (HR786). Email @Robert Daley for additional information or Congressional staff contact information.
| CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICANS APPROVE BUDGET RESOLUTION
After several weeks of negotiations, the House and Senate have adopted a budget resolution that will allow lawmakers to begin moving forward on a reconciliation bill that will include President Trump’s legislative priorities. The resolution maintains instructions for the House Energy and Commerce Committee to reduce mandatory funding by $880 billion, which could include significant reforms to the Medicaid program. House and Senate Committees will now begin the process of drafting legislation that will implement the tax and spending plans outlined in the budget resolution.
| HOUSE BUDGET COMMITTEE RE-LAUNCHES HEALTH TASK FORCE
The House Budget Committee announced that Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT) will chair the committee’s Health Care Taskforce for the 119th Congress. The task force will continue to focus on ways to modernize the U.S. health care system by addressing chronic diseases and exploring policy solutions to improve patient health outcomes. During the last Congress, NAACOS responded to the task force’s request for information and highlighted the role ACOs and value-based care play in lowering costs and improving outcomes for patients.
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• • •NAACOS Career Center: Post Today |
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| Find Qualified Candidates
The NAACOS Career Center is an important source for career advancement within the community of accountable care organizations. This growing online resource offers job seekers access to professional opportunities and provides employers a place to advertise position openings. |
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Administration Updates |
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ANNUAL MEDICARE PAYMENT UPDATES PROPOSED REGULATIONS
On Friday, CMS released Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 proposed rules for hospital inpatient, skilled nursing, and other post-acute care facilities.
- Inpatient and Long-Term Care Hospital— Updates inpatient hospital payments by 2.4 percent and long-term care hospital payments by 2.6 percent. CMS also proposes changes to quality measurement requirements in the Transforming Episode Accountability Model (TEAM) which is set to begin January 1, 2026.
- Hospice— Updates hospice payments by 2.4 percent.
- Psychiatric— Updates inpatient psychiatric payments by 2.4 percent.
| OMB SEEKS INPUT ON DEREGULATION
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published a request for information to solicit ideas on rules to be rescinded. The review and repeal effort will prioritize evaluating regulations in light of recent Supreme Court decisions (e.g., Loper Bright). Comments are due May 12, 2025. NAACOS will highlight existing burdensome requirements impacting value-based care (e.g., quality reporting requirements, beneficiary notification requirements) and will make our comments available for members to use in their owns submissions. To share any ideas for this comment letter, contact [email protected].
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Curana Health – Austin, TX
American Choice Healthcare – Miami, FL |
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Education Opportunities |
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NEW NAACOS RESOURCES AVAILABLE
- Paradigm Shifts in Payer-Provider Partnerships to Advance VBC. This presentation showcases a case study on how a payer-provider partnership had been formed, evolved, and leveraged to create a differentiated product in the market. View the webinar.
| BOOT CAMP 101 REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!
Join us for these live, virtual events coming in June 2025. Our Boot Camp 101 Events are live virtual sessions within two tracks: Clinical Operations and Data and Analytics. Each offers eight hours of education and a one-hour peer-to-peer virtual reception. The Clinical Operations and the Data and Analytics Boot Camps will be held on separate dates, and they can be purchased separately or in a package with both recorded for future viewing. These sessions will be presented at the beginner-to-intermediate level and will provide an understanding of Medicare accountable care and population health to maintain successful administration and operational functions. These sessions are great for new staff members or new ACOs.
The Data and Analytics Boot Camp will occur on June 17-18 and will include the topics of: - Creating Provider Attribution Lists for ACOs
- Transforming Raw CCLF Data into Actionable Reporting
- What ACO Operations and Clinicians Want Their Data Staff to Understand
- Trending Data to Provide a Clinical Picture
- Data Stratification Populations for Reporting and Dashboard Creation
- Focused Data that Drives ACO Success
- ED and Hospital Utilization Basics – Evaluating Improvement Opportunities
- Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: Where to Start
The Clinical Operations Boot Camp will occur on June 24-25 and will include the topics of:
Full agenda with Session Descriptions
Register Now!
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• • •What We’re Watching:
News About ACOs and Health Care |
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- Dr. Oz, the newly confirmed Administrator for CMS, outlined his vision for the agency, which includes empowering patients, holding providers accountable for outcomes, eliminating waste, and moving towards a health system that focuses on prevention and wellness.
- The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) held a public meeting last week where commissioners discussed physician payment issues and Medicare Advantage.
- NAACOS president and CEO Emily Brower joined a recent episode of the Pop Health Podcast to discuss progress and emerging trends in the value-based care landscape.
- The Congressional Budget Office updated its projections for the Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) trust fund, estimating that it will now remain solvent until 2052.
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