Statement on the Geographic Direct Contracting Model

By Blair Childs, Senior Vice President, Public Affairs

The Geographic Direct Contracting Model, or “Geo,” includes many aspects that Premier has long advocated for in risk-based models, including capitation, enhanced beneficiary tools and the ability to negotiate novel payment arrangements with preferred providers. These functions will allow entities to truly reform care delivery and payment approaches.

We look forward to working with the Biden Administration to improve upon aspects of the model. The entity selection process must give consideration to health systems and other providers that do not have experience with new functions such as claims processing and program integrity oversight. The benchmark and bid process must reflect the clinical risk of the population and the investment required to establish new administrative functions. Entities should be allowed to propose regions for the model, rather than limiting to defined regions, to promote alignment with existing clinically integrated networks. Finally, the Geo model must recognize the significant investment made by existing ACOs in the target region by ensuring their operations are not disrupted by this model.