Practices in four more regions will have chance to participate in CPC+

Practices in four additional regions will have the opportunity to participate in the government’s Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) model from 2018 to 2022.

In an announcement on Wednesday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said it was expanding the CPC+ program, an advanced primary care medical home model, to include three states—Louisiana, Nebraska and North Dakota—as well as the Greater Buffalo area of New York, which includes Erie and Niagara counties.

The CMS expects to select up to 1,000 practices to participate in round 2 of the CPC+ program, which rewards value and quality by offering an innovative payment structure to support primary care practices. The model offers two tracks with different delivery requirements and payment methodologies.

The CMS began the program this year, and the first round included 14 regions, with 53 payers and 2,891 practices. The CMS is now in its second round, soliciting payers to partner with the government agency and practices for the next five years.

Practices qualify for the additional incentive payment available for Advanced Alternative Payment Models under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA).

Eligible practices located in the four new regions may apply to participate starting today, May 18, through July 13. The CMS said it chose those four regions based on payer alignment and market density. It has provisionally selected to partner with seven payers in those regions.

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In addition, it has selected five payer partners to provide additional support in some of the existing regions that participated in Round 1. CPC+ rewards practices using incentive payments based on their performance on patient experience, clinical quality and utilization measures. Practices can apply via an online portal.