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CPC+ and population health management

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In 2012, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) launched an initiative designed to strengthen primary care. The Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative (CPCI) was designed as a four-year initiative to offer population-based care management fees and shared savings opportunities to participating primary care practices to support the provision of a core set of comprehensive primary care functions. In January 2017, CMS launched Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+), based on the foundational model of the CPCI.

With a renewed focus on population health, CPC+ is “a national advanced primary care medical home model that aims to strengthen primary care through regionally-based multi-payer payment reform and care delivery transformation. CPC+ includes two primary care practice tracks with incrementally advanced care delivery requirements and payment options to meet the diverse needs of primary care practices in the United States.”

Track 1 is designed for those practices that are ready to build the capabilities they need to deliver comprehensive primary care for their patients. In 2017, 1365 practices participated in Track 1. Track 2 is for those practices that are ready to take the additional step of increasing the breadth and depth of their care, focusing on patients with complex needs. In 2017, 1511 practices participated in Track 2.

Through its CPC+ initiative, CMS “seeks to improve quality, access, and efficiency of primary care.” Payment elements may vary, depending on which track the practice is in, but payment elements include a Care Management Fee, a Performance-Based Incentive Payment, and Payment under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.

Participants in CPC+ are expected to make changes in the way they deliver care for their patients. Those changes are centered on key Comprehensive Primary Care Functions: (1) Access and Continuity; (2) Care Management; (3) Comprehensiveness and Coordination; (4) Patient and Caregiver Engagement; and (5) Planned Care and Population Health.

The redesigned CPC+ includes a “robust learning system.” One of the CPC+ strategies is empanelment, which “pairs patients with a practitioner or care team as a foundation for population health management and patient relationships.” The rate of empanelment for practices participating in CPC+ grew steadily throughout 2017. CMS states that the CPC+ initiatives “ensures practices have the infrastructure to deliver better care, resulting in a healthier patient population.”