Initiative Provides Primary Care Practices with Additional
Resources to Improve Coordination of Care
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 4, 2017--
Kindred House Calls, the home-based primary care (“HBPC”) practice of
Kindred Healthcare, Inc. (“Kindred”) (NYSE:KND), is one of more than
2,900 primary care practices nationwide participating in Comprehensive
Primary Care Plus (“CPC+”), a partnership between payor partners from
the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”), state Medicaid
agencies, commercial health plans, self-insured businesses and primary
care providers. This partnership is designed to provide improved access
to quality healthcare at lower costs.
“A robust primary care system is essential to achieve better care,
smarter spending, and healthier people,” said Acting CMS Administrator
Patrick Conway
. “For this reason, CMS is committed to supporting primary
care clinicians to deliver the best, most comprehensive primary care
possible for their patients.”
Through CPC+, CMS will pay primary care practices a care management fee,
initially set at an average of $15 per beneficiary per month in Track 1
and $28 per beneficiary per month in Track 2, to support enhanced,
coordinated services on behalf of Medicare fee-for-service
beneficiaries. Simultaneously, participating commercial, state and other
federal insurance plans are also offering enhanced payment to primary
care practices designed to support them in providing high-quality
primary care on behalf of their members.
For patients, this means that physicians may offer longer and more
flexible hours; use electronic health records; coordinate care with
patients’ other healthcare providers; better engage patients and
caregivers in managing their own care; and provide individualized,
enhanced care for patients living with multiple chronic diseases and
higher needs.
“CPC+ is an important step toward primary care payment reform. This
multi-payor initiative incentivizes value and rewards quality, so when
we perform well as practitioners, our patients benefit and we benefit,”
said
Thomas Lally
, MD, President of Kindred House Calls. “We are excited
about the opportunity to participate in this innovative program that
aligns treatment goals and financial incentives, a crucial step as we
move along the value-based spectrum.”
The five-year model started on January 1, 2017, with CMS soliciting a
diverse pool of commercial health plans, state Medicaid agencies and
self-insured businesses to work alongside Medicare to support
comprehensive primary care. Public and private health plans in 14
regions across the country signed letters of intent with CMS to
participate in this model: Arkansas, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas and
Missouri’s Greater Kansas City region, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey,
New York’s Capital District-Hudson Valley region, Ohio and Kentucky’s
Cincinnati-Dayton region, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania’s Greater
Philadelphia Region, Rhode Island and Tennessee. The markets were
selected in August 2016 based on the percentage of the total population
covered by payer partners who expressed interest in joining this
partnership.
Kindred House Calls will participate in its Colorado and Ohio markets,
benefitting approximately 5,000 patients, while further building the
Company’s expertise in value-based care.
“This is a great opportunity to expand Kindred’s expertise in emerging
payment models and enhance our ability to deliver vital services in
residential settings that patients prefer,” said
Benjamin A. Breier
,
President and Chief Executive Officer of Kindred. “Value-based systems
are the future of healthcare and the CPC+ initiative provides the
Company yet another opportunity to demonstrate and fine-tune our
capabilities and share our learnings across the organization.”
Eligible primary care practices in each market were invited to apply to
participate in the winter of 2016. Through a competitive application
process, CMS selected primary care practices within the selected markets
to participate in CPC+. Practices were chosen based on their use of
health information technology; ability to demonstrate recognition of
advanced primary care delivery by leading clinical societies; service to
patients covered by participating payer partners; participation in
practice transformation and improvement activities; and diversity of
geography, practice size and ownership structure.
CPC+ is administered by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation
(CMS Innovation Center). The CMS Innovation Center was created by the
Affordable Care Act to test innovative payment and service delivery
models that have the potential to reduce program expenditures while
preserving or enhancing the quality of care. For more information about
CPC+, visit: https://innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/comprehensive-primary-care-plus/.
Kindred House Calls began in 2013 with the acquisition of a medical
practice in Ohio. It has since grown to become one of the largest HBPC
practices in the nation, covering 12 markets in five states and
deploying more than 100 practitioners who provide care to more than
10,000 patients each year. The average patient is homebound or
challenged to access appropriate care, is 87 years old with at least
five chronic conditions and is among the costliest 5% of all Medicare
beneficiaries. Kindred House Calls’ practitioners typically make 40 to
50 home visits each week.
About Kindred Healthcare
Kindred Healthcare, Inc., a top-90 private employer in the United
States, is a FORTUNE 500 healthcare services company based in
Louisville, Kentucky with annual revenues of approximately $7.2 billion(1).
As of October 1, 2016, Kindred through its subsidiaries had
approximately 102,200 employees providing healthcare services in 2,702
locations in 46 states, including 82 long-term acute care hospitals, 19
inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, 91 nursing centers, 19 sub-acute
units, 647 Kindred at Home home health, hospice and non-medical home
care sites of service, 104 inpatient rehabilitation units
(hospital-based) and contract rehabilitation service businesses which
served 1,740 non-affiliated sites of service. Ranked as one of Fortune
magazine’s Most Admired Healthcare Companies for seven years, Kindred’s
mission is to promote healing, provide hope, preserve dignity and
produce value for each patient, resident, family member, customer,
employee and shareholder we serve. For more information, go to www.kindredhealthcare.com. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
__________
(1)
Revenues based upon Kindred consolidated revenues for the twelve
months ended September 30, 2016.
Source: Kindred Healthcare, Inc.
Kindred Healthcare, Inc.
Susan E. Moss, 502-596-7296
Senior
Vice President, Marketing and Communications