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Archive for September, 2015

ACO Primary Care Exclusivity Requirement – Not As Broad As Some Believe

Tuesday, September 1st, 2015

Exclusivity of Primary Care Physicians Under MSSP Rules

MSSP Primary Care ExclusivityThere has been a lot of confusion across the country about the primary care exclusivity requirement that applies to Accountable Care Organizations under the Medicare Shared Savings Program.  Some providers are under the mistaken belief that primary care doctors must be exclusive with the ACO under all payment types, including private commercial contracts.  This extent of exclusivity is not required under the MSSP rules.  In fact, exclusivity is a huge factor that is indicative of antitrust violation except where required under the MSSP regulations.

The exclusivity requirement for primary care physicians is limited to participation in the MSSP program.  Primary care physician are not required to be exclusive to an ACO for commercial contracts.  Below are some quotes that were made by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the recently released revised MSSP regulations.  This information clearly indicates the scope and purposes of the exclusivity requirement for primary care physicians.

CMS Statement On Exclusivity of Primary Care Providers

Response: We regret that some of the language in the preamble about  the exclusivity of ACO participants (defined by the Medicare-enrolled  billing TIN) created unnecessary confusion about the proposal. The  point of our proposal was that, for us to appropriately evaluate ACO performance, we must evaluate performance based on a patient population  unique to the ACO. Therefore, some ACO participants, specifically those  that bill for the primary care services on which we proposed to base  assignment, would have to be exclusive to an ACO, for the purpose of Medicare beneficiary assignment, for the duration of an agreement  period. In the absence of such exclusivity and in a situation where an ACO participant is associated with two or more ACOs, it would be  unclear which ACO would receive an incentive payment for the  participant’s efforts on behalf of its assigned patient population.

Exclusivity of the assignment-based ACO participant TIN ensures unique  beneficiary assignment to a single ACO.  However, exclusivity of an ACO  participant TIN to one ACO is not necessarily the same as exclusivity  of individual practitioners (ACO providers/suppliers) to one ACO. We did state somewhat imprecisely in the preamble to the proposed rule that “ACO professionals within the respective TIN on which beneficiary  assignment is based, will be exclusive to one ACO agreement in the  Shared Savings Program.  This exclusivity will only apply to the primary care physicians.” This statement appears to be the basis of the  concerns expressed by many commenters, and we understand the reasons  for those concerns. However, we stated the policy (76 FR 19563) we  intended to propose more precisely elsewhere in the preamble, when we  stated that “[t]his exclusivity will only apply to primary care physicians (defined as physicians with a designation of internal medicine, geriatric medicine, family practice and general practice, as discussed later in this final rule) by whom beneficiary assignment is established when billing under ACO participant TINs. (Emphasis added).

Thus, the exclusivity necessary for the assignment process to work  accurately requires a commitment of each assignment-based ACO participant to a single ACO for purposes of serving Medicare  beneficiaries. It does not necessarily require exclusivity of each primary care physician (ACO provider/supplier) whose services are the  basis for such assignment.   For example, exclusivity of an ACO  participant leaves individual NPIs free to participate in multiple ACOs  if they bill under several different TINs. Similarly, an individual NPI  can move from one ACO to another during the agreement period, provided  that he or she has not been billing under an individual TIN. A member of a group practice that is an ACO participant, where billing is  conducted on the basis of the group’s TIN, may move during the  performance year from one group practice into another, or into solo practice, even if doing so involves moving from one ACO to another.

This degree of flexibility is, in fact, one reason for our preference  to use TINs to identify ACO participants over NPIs: adopting NPIs in  place of TINs would result in the much stricter exclusivity rules for  individual practitioners to which so many commenters objected, than the  use of TINs to identify ACOs. This flexibility is limited, once again,  only in cases where the ACO participant billing TIN and individual TIN  are identical, as in the case of solo practitioners. Even in those  cases, moreover, it was not our intent (and it is no part of the policy that we are adopting in this final rule) that an individual  practitioner may not move from one practice to another. But while solo  practitioners who have joined an ACO as an ACO participant and upon  whom assignment is based may move during the agreement period, they may  not participate in another ACO for purposes of the Shared Savings  Program unless they will be billing under a different TIN in that ACO.

We are therefore finalizing our proposal that each ACO participant  TIN is required to commit to an agreement with us.  In addition, each  ACO participant TIN upon which beneficiary assignment is dependent must  be exclusive to one ACO for purposes of the Shared Savings Program. ACO  participant TINs upon which beneficiary assignment is not dependent are  not required to be exclusive to a single ACO for purposes for the  Shared Savings Program.  As we discuss in section E found later in this  final rule we are also providing for consideration of the primary care  services provided by specialist physicians, PAs, and NPs in the assignment process subsequent to the identification of the  “triggering” physician primary care services. We are therefore also   extending our exclusivity policy to these ACO participants. That is,  the TINs under which the services of specialists, PAs, and NPs are  included in the assignment process would have to be exclusive to one  ACO for purposes of the Shared Savings Program. (We emphasize that we  are establishing this policy for purposes of Shared Savings Program  ACOs only: Commercial ACOs may or may not wish to adopt a similar  policy for their purposes.

John H. Fisher

Health Care Counsel
Ruder Ware, L.L.S.C.
500 First Street, Suite 8000
P.O. Box 8050
Wausau, WI 54402-8050

Tel 715.845.4336
Fax 715.845.2718

Ruder Ware is a member of Meritas Law Firms Worldwide

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