Home Health & Hospice Week

A new payment model the feds are launching could affect home care providers down the line.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has “unveiled a transformative step to test a state’s ability to improve the overall health care management of its state population,” CMS says in a release. “The States Advancing All-Payer Health Equity Approaches and Development Model (‘States Advancing AHEAD’ or ‘AHEAD Model’) aims to better address chronic disease, behavioral health, and other medical conditions,” CMS continues.

While the AHEAD Model focuses on primary care, its goal of “reducing all-payer avoidable health care spending” and encouraging hospital global payments may naturally segue into partnerships with home care providers. Eight states will receive awards under the program, CMS says.

“In our current health care system, fragmented care contributes to persistent, widening health disparities in underserved populations,” CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure says in the release. “The AHEAD Model is a critical step towards addressing disparities in both health care and health equity while improving overall population health.”

More information is at www.cms.gov/priorities/ innovation/innovation-models/ahead.