Physician groups are pleased with their initial take of the final accountable care organization (ACO) rule issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Oct. 20.
American Medical Group Association (AMGA) President and CEO Donald Fisher said AMGA is pleased CMS heeded many of the group’s suggestions.
Fisher said he is basing this opinion on an initial read of AMGA’s key concerns on risk adjustment; withholds; tracks of participation (two-sided risk); the minimum savings rate; data sharing; and patient alignment (attribution or assignment).
[See also: Final rule eases ACO regulations, lifts EHR requirements.]
Like many groups, however, AMGA is still in the process of a line by line study of the nearly 700-page rule, Fisher said.
Peter Carmel, MD, president of the American Medical Association (AMA), was also pleased with the final rule, which includes many of the changes recommended by the AMA.
“After preliminary review, the AMA believes this final rule includes a number of positive changes,” Carmel said.
“The AMA recommended that the risk and payment structure for potential ACOs should encourage participation by physicians in all practice sizes, and we are very pleased that this rule allows ACOs to share in every dollar of cost savings and includes an option that limits financial risk, which is important for many physician practices.”
Carmel also noted other changes that should also allow for greater physician participation in ACOs, including a rolling application process that allows more time for practices to prepare and removing the requirement that 50 percent of primary care physicians in an ACO must be ‘meaningful users’ of electronic health records.
The AMA also asked for ACOs to report on a lower number of quality measures that were most relevant to their patient populations and for removal of the measures associated with hospital-acquired conditions (HAC). The final rule reduces the number of required measures by half, including removal of the HAC measures, Carmel said, but the AMA would have preferred even greater flexibility on which measures practices are required to report.
[See also: ACOs dominate early discussion at MGMA conference.]
Follow Diana Manos on Twitter @DManos_IT_News.
