Lobbyists for the skilled nursing industry say they’re on board as the federal government explores bringing new bundled payment initiatives into post-acute care.
A top official with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation revealed Monday that the agency is taking a hard look at such payment reform — which would task providers with divvying up a single payment for an entire post-acute episode. Leaders with the two largest skilled care industry trade groups said Tuesday that they’re anxious to pursue such payment innovation and are willing to help hash out the details.
“LeadingAge not only supports the idea of a post-acute care bundle, we would like to work with CMMI to develop one,” Nicole Fallon, VP of health policy and integrated services, told McKnight’s. “Potential model leaders should not be limited to hospitals and physicians. Rather, post-acute and other providers of long-term services and supports are well-suited to participate as potential model leaders, and we are eager to design a model that tests our position.”
“AHCA is a fervent proponent of a thoughtfully crafted, post-acute care-initiated bundle and is actively engaging with CMMI to put forth recommendations for models that reduce cost without compromising quality of care,” added Nisha Hammel, senior director of population health management for the American Health Care Association.
LeadingAge’s Fallon said several of its members participated in the Bundled Payment for Care Improvement Initiative conducted by CMMI, which ended in September. She added that “a new post-acute alternative payment model should be pursued” because its successor program, BPCI Advanced, does not allow SNFs or other post-acute providers to initiate episodes of care.
CMMI Director Adam Boehler told hospital leaders at a conference earlier this week that the agency is seeing a flood of interest from the long-term care industry in bundled payment. They’re now actively looking for ways to make this happen, Modern Healthcare reported.
“Post-acute care is an area where we can improve quality and save money,” Boehler said at the American Hospital Association’s annual meeting. “From that perspective we like it. The devil’s in the details on how to set up the models correctly.”
