Clients and Friends:
The wait is over. Today, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ("CMS") released the long-awaited proposed rule on Accountable Care Organizations ("ACOs"). Concurrently, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice released a Proposed Statement of Antitrust Enforcement Policy regarding ACOs. Finally, the IRS also issued a notice requesting input regarding additional tax guidelines that may be necessary to accommodate ACOs. ACOs are intended to reshape the traditional fee for service health care delivery system into a system that promotes accountability, access to primary care, efficiency, and cost effective care.
The concept was first introduced in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("PPACA"). Congress discussed ACOs in the context of a shared savings program and used about six pages of PPACA to discuss the concept. The proposed rule is a whopping 427 pages long. Murer is currently devoting a significant amount of time and resources to comb through this complex rule. We intend to provide a summary of the rule in the near future.
Please keep in mind that the proposed rule is just that - proposed. CMS will open the rule up for comments over the next few months and will finalize the rule later this year. Please remember that the ACO proposed rule will have a significant impact on all types of providers and physicians, regardless of size of location. Therefore, it is critical that providers and physicians act now and begin to take steps to prepare for ACOs. One step may include submitting formal comments on the proposed rule to CMS to ensure that your interests are considered when the rule is finalized.
Murer is happy to work with you to submit comments to CMS. Murer is also prepared to work with providers and physicians to prepare ACO models. In the meantime, links are included in the sidebar to the left to the Proposed Rule, the FTC/DOJ Antitrust Enforcement Statement, and the IRS notice discussed above.
