Disseminating in new regions, Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) has become a primary care model for patients’ with complex needs. Eligible participants in Louisiana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and the Greater Buffalo Region of New York State will be able to join Round 2 of the CPC+ from 2018 to 2022. Eligible practices may apply for the CPC+ program until July 13, 2017.

They will join nearly 2900 practices and 53 payers in 14 other regions, including Arkansas, Colorado, Hawaii, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Kansas, Missouri, New York, Rhode Island, and Tennessee.

Following information are available on the CPC+ website:

• The practice application portal – open from May 18 – July 13, 2017. Prospective practices may email CPCPlusApply@Telligen.com for application help during this time.
• Schedule of open door forums held during the 8-week application period
• Short videos explaining payment innovations and care delivery requirements
• Download the CPC+ toolkit: CPC+ In Brief, CPC+ Care Delivery Transformation Brief, and CPC+ Payment Innovations Brief and Case Studies

The program, which began earlier in 2017, offers primary care doctors the chance to build their population health management skills while benefiting from financial incentives that can prepare them for value-based care. Participants in both Track 1 and Track 2 of the CPC+ receive prospective care management payments, although Track 2 practices have their fee-for-service reimbursements reduced to increase the incentive to cut costs.

Participants in the model, which qualifies as an Advanced Payment Model (APM) under the MACRA framework, will work towards achieving five core primary care improvement goals, including care access and continuity, care management, coordination of services, patient and family engagement, and population health management.

The five-year initiative requires primary care providers to leverage health IT tools to meet a series of benchmarks within these broad categories, such as using feedback from payers to assess clinical quality measures, following up with patients after an emergency department visit or hospital discharge, and stratifying patients by risk.

Participants must use Certified EHR Technology (CEHRT) to support their efforts, and are expected to be able to report on electronic clinical quality measures. Track 2 participants must also work with their health IT vendors to develop advanced analytics and population health management capabilities within their infrastructure.

Practices upload regular reports on their progress through a web portal, and can take advantage of CMS resources such as data feedback, learning communities, and best practices on the regional and national level.

In the initial incarnation of the program, 95 percent of practices serving approximately 376,000 Medicare beneficiaries met their quality benchmarks, resulting in $57.7 million in savings, CMS said in 2016.

If you have any questions about the model or would like to discuss further, please let us know.