SLV Health participates in Shared Savings Results for Primary Care Initiative

SLV Health participates in Shared Savings Results for Primary Care Initiative

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a report that shows the Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) initiative generated $57.7 million in gross savings for Medicare Parts A and B in 2015, the second year of shared savings results. These savings are essentially equivalent to the $58 million paid in care management fees to the practices. Four of the seven regions participating in CPC – including Colorado and San Luis Valley Health – realized net savings and will share in those savings with CMS. 

“In addition to the gross Medicare savings, CPC practices showed positive quality, with lower than expected hospital admission and readmission rates and favorable performance on patient experience measures. CPC practices’ performance on electronic Clinical Quality Measures also exceeded national benchmarks, particularly on preventive health measures,” wrote Patrick Conway, MD, CMS principal deputy administrator and chief medical officer.

The four-year, multi-payer initiative, launched in 2012 and pays participating primary care practices in seven U.S. regions to manage care for Medicare beneficiaries, with an opportunity to share in any net savings. There are 67 other provider organizations in Colorado participating in the CPC initiative along with San Luis Valley Health.  Marie Henderson, SLVH Clinic Manager added, “We are excited about the progress we have made in providing patient-centered, outcome focused health care.  We are planning to continue our efforts to become a more coordinated and responsive medical home for our patients through our Team Based Health and Comprehensive Primary Care Plus initiatives.”

CMS anticipates that the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus model, a five-year medical home model will qualify as an advanced alternative payment model under the final rule implementing key provisions of the new physician payment system required by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, Conway said.