Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet today announced 73 primary care practices in Colorado have been selected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to participate in a comprehensive initiative to help keep health care costs down. In total, 335 providers from across the state will participate in the Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) initiative.
“In Colorado, we’ve shown that a strong coordinated care network can lead to better results at lower cost to patients, hospitals and our health care system,” Bennet said. “This initiative provides more opportunities across the state and the nation to continue to develop and improve models to deliver care.”
The CPC Initiative is a partnership between CMS and other payers including state Medicaid agencies, commercial health plans, self-insured businesses, and primary care practices. Under the Initiative, CMS will pay primary care practices a care management fee, initially set at an average of $20 per beneficiary per month, to support enhanced, coordinated services on behalf of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries. Simultaneously, participating commercial, state, and other federal insurance plans are also offering enhanced payment to primary care practices.
For patients, this means these physicians may offer longer and more flexible hours, use electronic health records; coordinate care with patients’ other health care providers; better engage patients and caregivers in managing their own care, and provide individualized, enhanced care for patients living with multiple chronic diseases and higher needs.
The CPC initiative is a four-year initiative administered by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. The CMS Innovation Center was created by the Affordable Care Act to test innovative payment and service delivery models that have the potential to reduce program expenditures while preserving or enhancing the quality of care. For more information on the initiative and the selected primary care practices in Colorado, please visit http://innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/Comprehensive-Primary-Care-Initiative/Colorado.html.
The CPC initiative is related to other CMS initiatives authorized by the Affordable Care Act to lower costs and improve quality, including Bennet’s Community-Based Care Transitions Program, which is based on work in Grand Junction and Denver that improved hospital readmission rates among Medicare patients and could save hundreds of millions of dollars. The Denver Post has reported that a Denver care transitions model pilot program “demonstrate[ed] hundreds of millions of dollars in potential Medicare savings.” Colorado Public Radio has reported on the nexus between Colorado’s work on Care Transitions and the Partnership for Patients, which can be found here.
Providers in the following Colorado communities will participate in the initiative: Alamosa, Aspen, Basalt, Berthoud, Boulder, Carbondale, Clifton, Colorado Springs, Conifer, Delta, Denver, Durango, Eaton, Englewood, Estes Park, Evergreen, Fort Collins, Fountain, Glenwood Springs, Grand Junction, Greeley, Greenwood Village, Highlands Ranch, Johnstown, Lafayette, Lakewood, Littleton, Lone Tree, Longmont, Louisville, Loveland, Monument, Pueblo, Salida, Silverthorne, Steamboat Springs, Sterling, Telluride, Wellington, Westminster, and Winter Park. For more information, please click here.