Main Library
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission is recommending that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services scrap pandemic-skewed 2020 performance benchmarks for at-risk accountable care organizations.
“The COVID-19 public health emergency has likely affected—and will continue to affect, at least through 2020—Medicare spending in ways that are yet to be fully understood,” MedPAC Chairman Francis J. Crosson, MD, said in a letter this week to CMS Administrator Seema Verma.
“This is particularly problematic for providers participating in ACOs, whose 2020 performance will be assessed using benchmarks established before the current emergency,” Crosson said. “Given the dramatic shifts in care delivery that have occurred in 2020, attempting to adjust 2020 spending and benchmarks for COVID-19 will be impractical. It also may be inequitable.”