Primary Care Payment Model Delayed to 2021

The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation, part of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, recently released its Request for Applications for the new “Primary Care First” payment model. The program will now begin in 2021 rather than the 2020 start date that was originally proposed in April, as discussed here. CMS said it wanted to give providers more time to consider participation.

Under the Primary Care First model, CMS will use various quality and patient experience measures to assess the quality of care delivered by physicians. Providers who participate in the model will receive a flat fee for each patient which will be adjusted up or down quarterly based on the quality determinations.