Last January, Secretary Burwell of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) set an ambitious goal of tying 30 percent of Medicare fee-for-service payments to quality or value through alternative payment models by 2016 and 50 percent by 2018. To support these objectives, HHS launched the Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network (HCPLAN), a forum of public and private stakeholders to help advance the work being done across sectors to increase the adoption of value-based payments and alternative payment models (APMs). HCPLAN is working to align private payers and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in moving payment from traditional fee-for-service (FFS) methods to FFS-linked to quality and APMs. Payers, providers, employers, states, consumer groups, individual consumers are invited to engage with this effort by signing-up for the listerv to receive information, submitting comments on draft documents, participating in webinars and other stakeholder events.
HCPLAN has created three workgroups to facilitate their efforts:
Work Groups are comprised of ten to twelve experts representing the continuum of stakeholder groups. When applicable, work groups are expected to reach out to stakeholders for their input.
As one of the initial efforts by HCPLAN, a white paper was released by the APM FTP Work Group on October 22, 2015. This work group was charged with creating a framework for categorizing APMs and establishing a standardized and nationally accepted method to measure progress in the adoption of APMs across the US health care system (the “APM Framework”). The draft white paper focuses on the APM Framework through which progress can be described and measured. It describes the approach that the work group used to develop the proposed APM Framework and delineates and describes principles upon which the APM Framework is based. In a subsequent white paper, the APM FPT Work Group will put forth a methodological approach for measuring progress within the APM Framework.
Comments are being accepted on the draft white paper through November 20, 2015. A copy of the draft white paper and more information on submitting comments can be found on-line.
