Dive Brief:
- The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has announced the development of the Oncology Care Model (OCM), which aims to provide higher quality and better-coordinated oncology care at a lower cost to Medicare.
- Under the OCM, which is targeted at practices that administer chemotherapy, payment arrangements will include financial and performance accountability for the care of chemotherapy patients. CMS says they are seeking payer participation as well.
- "OCM encourages other payers to participate in alignment with Medicare to create broader incentives for care transformation at the physician practice level," the CMS announcement states.
Dive Insight:
The CMS suggests that engaging multiple payers would align financial incentives and help transform oncology care across a broader population. "Other payers would also benefit from savings, better outcomes for their beneficiaries, and information gathered about care quality," the CMS states. The announcement adds that participating payers will have some flexibility in determining their own payment incentives.
The OCM incorporates a two-part payment system including a monthly per-beneficiary-per-month payment, and potential performance-based payments for episodes of chemotherapy care.
Letters of intent from interested payers are due by 5:00 pm EDT on March 19, 2015. Application information is available at CMS.gov.