The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is going ahead with efforts to recruit Medicare providers who are willing to test the "accountable care organization" approach to health care delivery.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the HHS arm that is running the Medicare Shared Savings Program, a Medicare ACO test program, is preparing to publish two ACO program documents in the Federal Register this week.
The first, set to appear Thursday, is a notice for a 3-day seminar for ACO managers. CMS is asking ACOs to send teams of 2 to 4 seior executives to participate.
The other document, set to appear Friday, is a request for providers to submit applications to participate in the ""Pioneer Accountable Care Organization Model," during a period that is supposed to start this year and end in December 2016.
Letters of intent from the ACO pioneers are due June 18. Formal applications will be due July 18.
"To be eligible to participate in the Pioneer ACO Model, organizations would ideally already be coordinating care for a significant portion of patients under financial risk-sharing contracts and be positioned to transform both their care and financial models from fee-for-service to a three-part aim, value based model," CMS officials say in an early version of the pioneer notice.
