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Rural Healthcare Payment and Reimbursement – Resources

Selected recent or important resources focusing on Rural Healthcare Payment and Reimbursement.

Alternative Payment Models in the Quality Payment Program as of December 2023
A set of three tables that list brief information about Alternative Payment Models (APMs) that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) operates or has announced, as of December 2023. Identifies Advanced APMs, Merit Based Incentive Program (MIPs) APMs, and Other Payer Advanced APMs, which include Medicaid Other Payer Advanced APMs, Medicare Health Plan Payment Arrangements, and commercial payment arrangements.
Date: 12/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
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Independent Evaluation of Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+): Final Annual Report
Reports on the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) model, a CMS primary care payment and delivery reform effort that ran from 2017-2021. Outlines key findings from the model, including CPC+ supports to practices, care delivery changes made by practices, impacts on outcomes for Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries, and implications for primary care models. Describes the experiences of payers, practices, health IT vendors, and patients. Includes rural references throughout.
Additional links: Appendices to the Final Report, Volume 1, Appendices to the Final Report, Volume 2, Findings at a Glance
Date: 12/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Mathematica
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Advancing Value-Based Payment Policies Relevant to Rural Areas – Continued Challenges and New Opportunities
Discusses lessons from the recent public health emergency, rising health care costs, improved quality measurement, and innovative technologies on the transition from volume-based payment to value-based payment. Outlines potential policy opportunities for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center model design and CMS program inclusion to expand rural-appropriate opportunities to participate in the transition to value-based care. Builds on the 2020 publication How to Design Value‐based Care Models for Rural Participant Success: A Summit Findings Report.
Date: 12/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Value
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Uncompensated Care is Highest for Rural Hospitals, Particularly in Non-Expansion States
Analyzes uncompensated care and hospital operating expense data to explore trends over time, the role of Medicaid expansion, and the impact on rural hospitals. Includes state-by-state comparisons as well as rural and urban comparisons.
Author(s): Emmaline Keesee, Susie Gurzenda, Kristie Thompson, George H. Pink
Citation: Medical Care Research and Review, 81(2), 164-170
Date: 11/2023
Type: Document
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Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS): Remedy for the 340B-Acquired Drug Payment Policy for Calendar Years 2018-2022 Final Rule (CMS 1793-F)
Fact sheet providing an overview of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) final rule describing the agency's actions to remedy payment cuts to certain hospitals that participate in the 340B Drug Pricing Program from 2018-2022 that were declared unlawful by the Supreme Court's decision in American Hospital Association v. Becerra, 142 S. Ct. 1896 (2022). Details the one-time lump sum payments to affected 340B covered entities to what they would have been paid had the 340B payment cuts not been applied, as well as a 0.5% payment reduction on future non-drug item and service payments to maintain budget neutrality beginning in calendar year 2026.
Date: 11/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
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Calendar Year (CY) 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule
Fact sheet providing an overview of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) final rule regarding updates and changes to the Medicare payments under the Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) and other Medicare Part B issues for calendar year 2024. Summarizes provisions related to paying separately for Community Health Integration, Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Risk Assessment, and Principal Illness Navigation services; telehealth services; mental health visits furnished by Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), including marriage and family therapists and mental health counselors as eligible for payment at RHCs and FQHCs; and more.
Date: 11/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
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Health Panel Comment Letter – Encouraging Rural Participation in Population-Based Total Cost of Care Models
Offers comments in response to the Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC) Request for Information regarding rural participation in population-based total cost of care models. Covers considerations for determining the most relevant definition of rural, barriers that impact rural providers' participation in alternative payment models (APMs), service delivery models and resources that are effective in encouraging value-based care (VBC) transformation in rural areas, and more.
Date: 10/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural Policy Research Institute Rural Health Panel
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Medicare: Performance-Based and Geographic Adjustments to Physician Payments
Statement to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Health, summarizing the Government Accountability Organization's (GAO) 2021 reports on the Quality Payment Program and the two tracks it established to incentivize Medicare providers and its 2022 report on geographic adjustments to physician payments. Includes information on the participation of providers in rural and underserved areas in Advanced Alternative Payment Models (APMs) and the challenges these providers face in transitioning to APMs.
Additional links: Full Report
Date: 10/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Government Accountability Office
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MedPAC Payment Basics
Series of briefs providing an of Medicare payment systems. Covers payments systems including Accountable Care Organizations (ACO), Critical Access Hospitals (CAH), Federally Qualified Health Centers and Rural Health Clinics, hospital acute inpatient services, and more.
Date: 10/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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Environmental Scan on Encouraging Rural Participation in Population-Based TCOC Models
Presents results of an environmental scan regarding population-based total cost of care (PB-TCOC) payment models and encouraging rural participation in these models. Describes challenges affecting rural patients and providers; opportunities for alternative payment models (APMs) and PB-TCOC models to address challenges in rural areas; trends in rural providers' participation in APMs; driving care delivery transformation in rural providers, including models that include or target rural participants in their model designs; leveraging financial incentives to improve rural health care; adoption and use of health information technology, including telehealth and data analytics among rural providers; and the measurement of rural providers' performance in APMs.
Date: 09/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, NORC at the University of Chicago
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Additional resources are available related to this guide. See the full list of resources by topic for:


Last Updated: 11/1/2024