24 Jul HCTTF Joins Coalition Letter Supporting the Value in Health Care Act of 2020
The Health Care Transformation Task Force joined an industry coalition letter to Representatives Welch, DelBene, and LaHood supporting the Value in Health Care Act of 2020 (Value Act), a bipartisan bill aiming to ensure that value-based health care continues to serve Medicare patients by embracing higher value and lower cost. The Value Act makes a number of important reforms to strengthen Medicare’s value-based care models and Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) to ensure that these models continue to produce high quality care for the Medicare program and its beneficiaries as well as to generate savings for taxpayers.
The Value Act introduces critical policies given the acute needs of the nation’s health care system to adequately navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of their commitment to value-based care, ACOs and APM participants were already utilizing many of the tools which have been key to managing the COVID-19 crisis—such as care coordinators, telehealth and remote monitoring, data analysis and aggregation, and patient tracking. They have been able to quickly and effectively deploy these same resources to manage patient populations throughout the pandemic. Additionally, the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on the vulnerable and communities of color highlights the need for program improvements, such as fair and accurate risk adjustment.
Key Components of the Value Act
This legislation will further strengthen ACOs and APMs as the bill:
- Provides appropriate shared savings rates
- Modifies risk adjustment methodologies
- Removes barriers to participation
- Ensures fair and accurate benchmarks
- Provides educational and technical support for ACOs
- Makes important steps to reinforce the transition to value through extending and modifying Advanced APM bonuses and addressing aspects of APM overlap.