CMS adds medical practices to home-care pilot program

Three groups of medical practices were added to an 8-month-old Medicare pilot program that aims to test methods for reducing unnecessary beneficiary hospitalizations.

The CMS admitted three consortia of medical practices to the Independence at Home Demonstration Program that was launched in December and already includes 16 other practices. The new consortia members are Virginia Commonwealth University Health System/Medical College of Virginia Hospitals and Physicians in Richmond, Va.; Innovative Primary Senior Care in Skokie, Ill.; and Treasure Coast Healthcare in Stuart, Fla.

The pilots aim to test whether primary-care services delivered in the home by multidisciplinary teams can improve care and reduce costs for beneficiaries with chronic conditions and forestall the need for institutional care. They require 24-hour availability by providers who also use electronic health information systems, remote monitoring and mobile diagnostic technology.

The program will track the outcomes of the various pilot participants through specific care-quality measures and determine whether they meet predetermined savings targets.

The providers participating in the three-year pilot program authorized by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will have a chance to share in any of the savings that their improved care is determined to have provided to Medicare.

When the program was announced in December, CMS officials said it eventually could include as many as 50 medical practices.