Update on ACEP’s APM Strategic Initiative
ACEP has an exciting update on our Alternative Payment Model (APM) Strategic Initiative. As background, a couple years ago, ACEP created the Acute Unscheduled Care Model (AUCM), a Medicare APM specifically designed for emergency physicians. Currently, individual emergency physicians and emergency medicine groups do not have any opportunities to directly participate in “Advanced APMs.” Under Medicare, participation in an Advanced APM could result in a five percent payment bonus through 2024 and a higher payment fee schedule update starting in 2026. The AUCM has been endorsed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), but not yet implemented by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
As ACEP waits to see how CMS may implement the AUCM in Medicare, we are simultaneously pursuing model implementation by other payors, including Medicaid and private payors. More and more state Medicaid agencies and private payors are moving away from fee-for-service (FFS) contracts with physicians and other health care practitioners towards value-based payment arrangements, and the AUCM is an ideal APM construct for these payors to pursue for emergency medicine.
Through the APM Strategic Initiative, ACEP is continually providing information and resources to emergency medicine groups, state Medicaid agencies, private payors, and other stakeholders about how to structure and participate in emergency-medicine focused APMs that use the AUCM as a framework. We are happy to announce that we have updated our APM Strategic Initiative website with additional resources that provide a more detailed overview of the AUCM and its potential for improving emergency care and reducing costs.
While these resources are mainly background materials for you to learn more about the AUCM, ACEP is in the process of developing targeted tool kits that you can use to engage in discussions with state Medicaid agencies and private payors on emergency-medicine focused APMs. Stay tuned for this next phase of the initiative.
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