AAFP president-elect: Interest in CPC+ strong, enrollment period ends today

Midnight EST tonight is the deadline for physicians and practices to enroll in the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus program, CMS’ largest-ever initiative to overhaul how primary care is delivered and paid for in the United States.

Set to run from Jan. 1, 2017, through 2021 in 14 selected regions, the program, also referred to as CPC+, will see as many as 5,000 practices of all sizes and structures enter one of two tracks, both of which require multiple changes over the course of 5 years in how practices operate. According to John Meigs Jr., MD, president-elect of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the program has been seeing plenty of interest not just from AAFP members, but from across the family medicine spectrum.

“There has been interest since CMS made the announcement in April, but as you can imagine, interest spiked significantly once the regions were announced Aug. 1,” Meigs told Healio Family Medicine. “The AAFP's CPC+ web page saw a 43% increase in traffic between July and August. It's difficult to say how many family physicians or AAFP members have applied, but we have received several calls asking for help with the application process.”

According to the president-elect, AAFP members have also been inquiring about a possible extension in the enrollment deadline. However, Meigs said CMS has made it clear that will not happen. In an email, CMS spokeswoman Reina Becnel said it was unlikely the deadline would be extended, noting officials had made their “final push” to physicians earlier in the week.

CMS previously extended the deadline for payer proposals from June 1 to June 8.

Designed as an extension of the Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) initiative, which began in October 2012 and will end on Dec. 31, 2016, CPC+ will create a two-track system of payments and care delivery, covering care access and continuity, care management, comprehensiveness and coordination, patient and caregiver engagement, and planned care and population health.

Track 1 would see CMS pay primary care practices receive a monthly care management fee in addition to the fee-for-service payments under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. Under Track 2, practices would receive the monthly care management fee, and a hybrid of reduced Medicare fee-for-service payments and upfront comprehensive primary care payments.

A breakdown of all of the required first-year changes under both CPC+ tracks can be found here.

According to Meigs, CMS provided ample information regarding education and resources on CPC+ during the enrollment process. However, he added that more could have been done to inform physicians about the technical assistance involved in the program.

“We know practices have put a lot of thought into whether or not to apply for the program out of concern for their ability to meet the program objectives,” Meigs said. “Although CMS did a great job of providing information and resources about CPC+, there wasn't much focus on the technical assistance practices will receive with their participation. Knowing they will not be left to their own devices to meet the program objectives was a great relief to those who were not aware of the added benefit." – by Jason Laday

Additional reading:

http://www.aafp.org/practice-management/transformation/cpc-plus.html

https://innovation.cms.gov/Files/x/cpcplus-faqs.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RyXKdpViP8&list=PLaV7m2-zFKpgXyFdYktqhUfgYcaGsSMPe&index=1