CMS announced earlier this month that they are launching a new voluntary bundled payment model which they have named, “Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Advanced,” or BPCI Advanced. Like its predecessor, this new model gives participants an opportunity to earn additional payment when expenditures for an episode of care is lower than the spending target. According to the CMS announcement, BPCI Advanced will help providers “improve quality, coordination, and cost-effectiveness for both inpatient and outpatient care.”1 As such, participation in BPCI Advanced also qualifies as an Advanced Alternative Payment Model (Advanced APM).
Improvement in quality, coordination, and cost can be met in various ways. First, CMS expects participants to redesign care delivery to control costs. As with all Advanced APMs, participants are required to user Certified Electronic Health Record Technology. CMS has also tied specific quality performance measures to these 32 different types of clinical episodes within the model.2 Formal, independent evaluation will be conducted to assess the quality of care and changes in spending.
The following are important dates for BPCI Advanced:
Q&A Open Forum – January 30, 2018
Application Deadline – March 12, 2018
Model Performance Period Begins – October 1, 2018
Second Application Deadline – January 2020
Model Performance Period Ends – December 31, 2023
Resources
- CMS, “CMS Announces New Payment Model to Improve Quality, Coordination, and Cost-Effectiveness for Both Inpatient and Outpatient Care,” January 9, 2018, https://www.cms.gov/Newsroom/MediaReleaseDatabase/Press-releases/2018-Press-releases-items/2018-01-09.html [Online: January 16, 2018].
- CMS, BPCI Advanced, Last Updated, January 25, 2018, https://innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/bpci-advanced [Online: January 25, 2018].
