ACO announcement

AANP

Innovation Center Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Model Announcement - On Friday, Feb. 25, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (Innovation Center) announced that it had redesigned the Global and Professional Direct Contracting Models and created a new ACO model, titled the ACO Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health (REACH) Model, which will go into effect in 2023 and run through 2026. While AANP is still reviewing the model design, we wanted to highlight one aspect of the model for you. Beginning in 2023, the Innovation Center plans to include a waiver for model participants, entitled the “Nurse Practitioner Services Benefit Enhancement,” which would waive numerous Medicare barriers on NPs. As with all Innovation Center waivers, the waiver authority only extends to ACOs (and their participating clinicians) who participate in the model. Specifically, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) intends to issue waivers as necessary to test the ACO REACH Model and allow NPs to certify a REACH beneficiary’s need for hospice care; to certify a REACH beneficiary’s need for diabetic shoes; to order and supervise cardiac rehabilitation for a REACH beneficiary; to establish, review, sign, and date a REACH beneficiary’s home infusion therapy plan of care; and to refer a REACH beneficiary for medical nutrition therapy. Additional information regarding the model can be found on the ACO REACH Model fact sheet