The Biden administration hopes to increase participation in alternative payment models as a way to save the government money and improve care for beneficiaries, a senior official said Wednesday.
Purva Rawal, chief strategy officer for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, speaking at the Better Medicare Alliance conference, said the administration wants to "accelerate" the movement to value-based care through Accountable Care Organizations and other models.
"We need to recognize we need to increase the number of ACOs and the beneficiaries assigned to them, increase opportunities for providers who want to participate and deliver whole-person, integrated care," Rawal said.
ACOs are groups of providers that coordinate care for Medicare fee-for-service patients, with the goal of improving quality and avoiding duplication of care.
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But fewer ACOs participated in one of CMS' main programs last year, in part due to changes made by the Trump administration that required ACOs take on downside risk sooner.
Rawal specifically mentioned direct contracting models, which allow more types of organizations, including MA plans, to participate in risk-sharing arrangements.
"That's really our third generation ACO model that we're really building on," Rawal said.
She also highlighted the Medicare Advantage Value-Based Insurance Design Model, which tests health plan innovations designed to reduce costs and improve care for Medicare beneficiaries.
"As MA continues to grow, we know there's a lot of opportunity with our VBID model and other efforts to really shape the healthcare landscape," she said.
"We want to use a learning system approach to accelerate engagement of Medicare Advantage organizations in the VBID model in a targeted set of high-impact areas," she said.
