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Intense debates on every subject are constantly swirling in the healthcare policy sphere; that has always been the case. But one debate that is both impactful and being closely watched is the intensifying argument between the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, particularly CMS Administrator Seema Verma, and some leader organizations in the accountable care organization (ACO) area.
At its base, the proposal on the part of CMS, as outlined in a proposed rule published in August, to push more ACOs into two-sided risk, is being pushed back against by many ACO leaders, particularly by their nationwide association, NAACOS (the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of ACOs). As Managing Editor Rajiv Leventhal noted in his report Dec. 5, CMS’s “core aim” is “to push these organizations into two-sided risk models—so that Medicare isn’t on the hook when ACOs overspend past their financial benchmarks—suggested to redesign the program’s participation options by removing the traditional three tracks in the MSSP model and replacing them with two tracks that eligible ACOs would enter into for an agreement period of no less than five years.”