On November 25, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) announced a Request for Applications (RFA) for the Direct Contracting Professional and Global participation options.
Medicare’s Direct Contracting is a set of three voluntary payment model options that will test new financial risk-sharing arrangements in an effort to reduce Medicare costs while maintaining or improving quality of care furnished to Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries. Announced seven months ago as part of the Primary Cares Initiative, the Direct Contracting model intends to create new value-based payment opportunities for a wider range of provider organizations unable to participate or uninterested in existing ACO models.
CMS intends to release information about the third Direct Contracting payment model option later this year, according to the announcement. (See here and here for more details.)