Interested in becoming a Medicare ACO next year? File your intent to do so by today

Heads up for providers interested in forming an accountable care organization (ACO) next year to take advantage of incentive payments under Medicare’s Shared Savings Program: You need to submit a Notice of Intent (NOI) by today (May 31) in order to do that. CMS wants you to fill out the brief, online form, available here. 

 

Once you’ve got that taken care of, there’s another form you must fill out (naturally). That’s the “Application for Access to CMS Computer Systems,” Form CMS-20037, no later than June 10, 2013. You’ll get a link to that with your NOI acknowledgement email from CMS.

 

While you’re at it, you might want to read up on the financial nuts and bolts of ACOs, including how patients are assigned to them, and how the Medicare risk-adjusted payments are calculated (hint: it all comes down to accurate diagnosis coding).

 

Make sure to stay abreast of ACO developments in the pages of Part B News.