Statement on ACO Primary Care Flex Model Announcement

By Seth Edwards, Vice President of Population Health and Value-based Care, Premier Inc.

Premier applauds CMS for releasing its Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Primary Care Flex model, which will test primary care capitation in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). Premier has long advocated for CMS to utilize the MSSP as an innovation platform and is pleased to see CMS leverage the only permanent demonstration model to test and scale best practices.

However, Premier is disappointed in the limited scope of what could be a promising model to help ACOs shift off the fee-for-service chassis. Limiting the model to low-revenue ACOs is flawed and creates market distortions by advantaging one provider type over another. Additionally, ACO performance is driven by other factors beyond revenue status, as highlighted in a Premier analysis.

Premier continues to strongly urge CMS to eliminate arbitrary distinctions between high- and low-revenue ACOs and ensure that the ACO Primary Care Flex model is open to all ACOs regardless of their revenue status or structure.