On April 22, 2019, HHS announced five new payment models that the agency believes “will transform primary care to deliver better value for patients throughout the healthcare system.”
The CMS Innovation Center will administer the models, which are provided under two paths: the Primary Care First (PCF) payment model options and the Direct Contracting (DC) payment model options. According to CMS, the PCF models are focused on individual primary care practice sites, while the DC payment model options “aim to engage a wider variety of organizations that have experience taking on financial risk and serving larger patient populations, such as Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, and Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs).” Further, CMS notes that all five of the new payment model options focus on patients who have chronic conditions and serious illnesses.