1,300 FPs Chosen to Participate in Multipayer Demonstration Project

CMS has announced the names of 500 primary care practices located in seven regions across the country that have been selected to participate in CMS' Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) initiative.

According to CMS, the initiative will include more than 2,000 health care professionals and nearly 300,000 Medicare beneficiaries. Family physicians -- about 1,300 in all -- will play a vital role in testing the multipayer demonstration project, which will incorporate a blended payment model that will include fee-for-service payments; a per-patient, per-month care coordination fee; and the opportunity for practices to share in any savings that are accrued.

AAFP President Glen Stream, M.B.I., of Spokane, Wash., praised his family physician colleagues for their participation. "I’m so proud of our members," said Stream in an interview with AAFP News Now. "Since the initiative was announced in September (2011), I have encouraged family physicians to step up and apply. It's critical that this initiative achieve early success, so it can be rolled out to broader areas of the country."

The Academy views the CPC initiative as a game changer for family medicine because it aligns payment with medical home transformation and involves both public and private payers, said Stream.

"The family physicians selected for this program really are leaders in an initiative that is critical for our specialty, our patients and our health care system," he added.

The number of CPC initiative family physician participants by region includes an estimated

Practices were chosen for the project based on a number of factors, including practice size and location, proficiency with electronic health records, participation in practice transformation and improvement activities, and service to patients covered by participating payers.

According to a CMS press release, the project's overall goal is to improve patient access to high quality health care at a lower cost.

"Primary care practices play a vital role in our health care system, and we are looking at ways to better support them in their efforts to coordinate care for their patients," said CMS Acting Administrator Marilyn Tavenner in the press release.

The four-year initiative will be administered by CMS' Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.