A new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) report shows that medical practices that adopted two-sided risk drove payment reductions in the Oncology Care Model (OCM) and achieved net savings in 10 of 11 performance periods, totaling $229.6 million.
In relation to two-sided and one-sided risk through reduced payments for nonchemotherapy drugs, for example, practices with two-sided risk significantly reduced payments for administration of chemotherapy (-$39, p < 0.05) and for imaging (-$36, p < 0.05) but significantly increased payments for labs ($32, p < 0.05), the CMS report noted.
Practices with one-sided risk also significantly reduced payments for imaging (-$26, p<0.05) but did not significantly impact any other subcomponent of Part B payments.
The OCM is designed to improve the costs and quality of oncology care through payments for monthly enhanced oncology services and financial performance, according to CMS. The OCM supplemental evaluation on impacts by risk arrangement came out November 8.
