Tuesday, April 23, 2019

NHPCO Comment on CMS Primary Care First Model Options

NHPCO President and CEO Edo Banach, released the following statement in response to the Health and Human Services announcement of the Primary Care First Model Option:

“While we look forward to gathering more details about HHS’ recently announced set of payment model proposals, we applaud the Administration’s goal of delivering better value and care for patients. NHPCO has long advocated that any serious illness alternative payment model (APM) must balance population health and value-based care goals with the imperative to respond to patients’ unique care needs. 

“Key to the success of any model will be protecting and expanding access to high-quality palliative care and hospice services, and we hope that timely access to care will be integrated as a quality metric in the evaluation of the new Primary Care First Model. An interdisciplinary team is a key component of hospice and palliative care—but is not explicitly highlighted in the information released thus far. Any successful model will have to leverage interdisciplinary, person-centered care to be successful.

As the oldest and largest membership organization representing hospice and palliative care programs and professionals in the United States, NHPCO stands ready to help with the development and implementation of an APM that meets these goals.

“NHPCO has also recently partnered with other stakeholders across our sector in expressing our ongoing excitement and support for a serious illness payment model that will increase access to palliative care services for patients and families. Together, we have a continued interest in working with CMS to inform model refinement and educate and activate the field for model implementation.”

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