On July 7, the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its proposed rule for the Medicare physician fee schedule for calendar year 2023. Among other updates, the proposed rule contains significant programmatic changes to the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP).
In an article for RevCycleIntelligence, lawyers Jake Harper and Felicia Alexander said that “while the proposed changes may not have an overwhelming effect on the shift to value-based care, the policies support the trend of CMS initiatives that incentivize participation in alternative payment models.”
RevCycleIntelligence writes that the rule introduced proposals to provide advanced shared savings payments to certain new accountable care organizations (ACO) that focus on rural and other underserved populations. In addition, CMS has proposed allowing new ACOs to participate in an upside-only risk-sharing model for a longer period before taking on downside risk.
“That said, while these changes may remove perceived barriers to participation in the MSSP, it remains unclear whether these proposals will be enough to drive a meaningful number of new providers to establish ACOs or simply push those that were already considering ACO establishment to take the plunge,” Jake and Felicia explained.