Task Force Comments on LAN Draft White Paper: Alternate Payment Models (APM) Framework

The Task Force supports policies that promote value-based, patient-centered care and appreciates the Work Group’s movement in that direction with the release of its draft White Paper. We support the White Paper’s seven Principles, and urge an eighth Principle be added to address the importance of quality of care in APMs.
We are concerned, however, about an inference that the Framework may signal that all organizations should be proceeding up a ramp toward an “ultimate” population-based payment APM. While the framework appropriately establishes a clear path away from fee-for-service and toward patient-centered models that account for total cost of care, the appropriate endpoint for that progression may differ depending on the needs of a particular market or community. The HCTTF believes it is too early in this innovation cycle to conclude that one type of APM is a better patient-centered model over another, as all models are in the testing and evaluation phase.

Task Force Response Summary

1. APMs take many forms and provide different benefits depending on the communities they serve.
2. The continuum to value-based health care may be seen as a path to population-based payment, yet allowing the appropriate speed for traveling that path is critical to building and maintaining effective patient-centered care models.
3. Bundled payment programs can provide effective value-based care as stand alone APMs or in combination with other APMs.
4. Sharing of financial risk should mean sharing of total responsibility for patient care.

The Task Force response to the three pillars of patient-centered care is further detailed in the full letter.

 

Read the Letter Here

 

Letter submitted on November 20, 2015