CHECK OUT NAACOS’ EVENTS AT VALUE WEEK Health Care Value Week takes place next week, February 24-28 with virtual and in-person events focused on value-based care topics. NAACOS is supporting three sessions. Register now to attend virtually. These sessions include:
Paradigm Shifts in Payer-Provider Partnerships to Advance Value-basedCare, moderated by NAACOS’ board chair Melanie Matthews—February 27 at 10:30 am ET
Alliance for Value-based Patient Care Presents: Advancing Healthcare Payment Reform: Lessons from MACRA and the Road Ahead for Alternative Payment Models, co-moderated by NAACOS’ SVP of government affairs Aisha Pittman—February 27 at 1:00 pm ET
The AMA, AHIP & NAACOS Playbook with Recommendations Toward a Sustainable Future for Value-based Payment—February 28 at 1:00 pm ET
NAACOS ADVOCACY ON TWO KEY ISSUES IMPACTING MEMBERS
NAACOS is aware that members remain concerned about
the impact of the ACPT for ACOs who entered/renewed in MSSP for 2024 and
significant spending increases for skin substitutes. NAACOS has reached out to the Administration on these issues; however, communication is slowed due to the change in Administration. Additionally, we have begun to inform our Congressional champions of the challenges, with the request that Congress ask CMS to promptly address these issues.
More information on each issue:
The ACPT in MSSP. For new/renewing MSSP agreements beginning in 2024, ACO financial benchmarks are trended forward using one-third of the Accountable Care Prospective Trend (ACPT) and 2/3 of blended national and regional growth trends. For 2024, the ACPT inaccurately projected spending at 3.6 percent while national expenditures increased 7.6 percent, arbitrarily lowering benchmarks for ACOs by 1.3 percent. NAACOS continues to ask to reweight the ACPT to 0% for 2024.
Increased Spending for Skin Substitutes. Our partners at the Institute for Accountable Care analyzed Medicare claims data and found spending on these products jumped from $1.6 billion in 2022 to $6.9 billion through the first nine months of 2024. Importantly, some of the highest users of these products have already been subject to Justice Department actions. We’ve shared these findings with CMS and would like to work to identify a policy solution that will hold ACOs harmless for any anomalous spending. Given the significant regional variation in spending for these products, the approach of removing all the expenditures from expenditures and benchmarks may not be the appropriate solution.
NAACOS will be hosting a call on March 04, 2025 at 2:00pm ET to discuss these issues in depth. Sign up now! For additional information or concerns, please reach out to Aisha Pittman.
Government Funding – The March 14 government funding and March 31 health extenders deadlines are quickly approaching. Bipartisan negotiations to address these key issues have been limited because of the Trump Administration’s actions to cut the federal government workforce and programs. Stakeholder groups continue to file lawsuits against the administration’s actions and it’s still to be determined what impact this will have on the ability for congressional leaders to reach a bipartisan agreement to fund government operations.
Budget Reconciliation – House and Senate Republicans remain at odds on how to move forward with President Trump’s legislative agenda. Last week, the House released a budget framework that would allow for nearly $5 trillion in tax cuts while reducing federal spending on the Medicaid program by nearly $880 billion. Changes to Medicare’s site neutral payment policies also remain under discussion.
As Congress works to reach an agreement to extend key health programs, please continue to contact your Members of Congress asking them to support an extension of Medicare’s advanced APM incentives along with offsetting the harmful physician payment cuts that went into effect in January. Please contact Robert Daley for assistance with talking points or staff contact information.
Now that the Senate has confirmed Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., as Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary, the Senate Finance Committee is planning confirmation hearings for other key health posts, including HHS Deputy Secretary and CMS Administrator.
TACHC
Austin, TX
EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES
SPRING CONFERENCE AGENDA OUT NOW! REGISTER EARLY AND SAVE! Meet us at the Baltimore Hilton Inner Harbor April 22-24 for the Spring 2025 Conference! The main conference agenda features leading healthcare experts and CMS officials sharing timely and essential information for ACOs.
Start your conference experience on April 22 with a pre-conference workshop, which requires additional registration. The topics for the three workshops are:
From Data to Point-of-Care Decisions: Crafting a Scalable Data and Analytics Infrastructure
Driving Innovation in Value-Based Relationships through Specialty Care Engagement
Balancing the Quality Tightrope
Reserve your hotel room by February 28 (or until sold out) to receive the NAACOS discounted rate. The discounted rate is $229 per night plus taxes and fees.
Please note the dates of the Spring 2025 Conference are Tuesday-Thursday.
WHAT WE'RE WATCHING: NEWS ABOUT ACOS AND HEALTH CARE
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) will hold their next public meeting the first week of March, followed by the release of their annual payment recommendations to Congress.
The Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC) will hold a public meeting on March 3-4 discussing how to reduce barriers to participation in population-based total cost of care models and support primary and specialty care transformation. The agenda includes speakers from several NAACOS member organizations.
