Proposed ACO Rules Expected in December, With Dr. Berwick's Personal Input

Tags: accountable care organizations | CMS regulations | Donald Berwick

Proposed federal rules on accountable care organizations are expected in December and Donald Berwick, MD, the new CMS administrator, is personally involved in the process, according to a CMS spokesman.

Don McLeod, a member of the CMS public affairs office, says CMS rule-makers may have to work right up to the deadline of Dec. 31 for the regulations, because the agency is still hiring staff to carry out the process.

Dr. Berwick, appointed July 7, is said to be passionate about ACOs and other innovations in the new healthcare law. Asked whether Dr. Berwick is personally involved in the rule-making work, Mr. McLeod said, with emphasis, "Yeah!" then added, "I think you could say that."

He acknowledges there are already some early drafts of regulations for some specific some aspects of ACOs, such as the payment scheme for providers, based on the recently completed Physician Group Practice Demonstration, but Mr. McLeod also says many people still need to be hired to complete the work.

Anthony "Tony" Rodgers, the new deputy administrator for strategic planning who directly oversees drafting the ACO regulations, started his job only two months ago, and the director of the new Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, who will also have input into the regulations, has not been hired yet, Mr. McLeod says. He adds that the effort will require input from other agencies within HHS besides CMS.

Mr. McLeod says the proposed regulations will be limited to ACOs and a few related areas, and not the whole healthcare law, which they are part of. After the proposed rules are released, the agency will be crafting final rules for implementation on Jan. 1, 2012.

Read more on ACOs:

Insights From the Most Successful Model for ACOs: Q&A With Barbara Walters of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic on the Medicare Physician Group Practice Demonstration

New Collaboratives Getting Health Systems Ready for ACOs: Q&A With Blair Childs at Premier

Insights From the Model for ACOs: Q&A With Harold Dash of Everett Clinic on the Medicare Physician Group Practice Demonstration Project

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