CMS: Pioneer ACO Special Open Door Forum Conference Call

Moderator: Barbara Cebuhar, June 7, 2011, 12:00PM, Eastern Time

Operator: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, my name is (Shawn) and I will be your conference operator today.  At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Pioneer ACO Special Open Door Forum Conference Call.  All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise.  After the speaker’s remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session.  If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star then the number one on your telephone keypad.  To withdraw your question, you may press the pound key.  Thank you. 

Ms. Barbara Cebuhar of CBS, CMS, excuse me.  You may begin your conference call.

Barbara Cebuhar: Good afternoon, everyone.  My name is Barbara Cebuhar.  I’m with the CMS Office of Public Engagement.  Thank you for everyone being with us on the call today.

We’re here to discuss some exciting new options for a whole range of providers across the health care spectrums that are considering being a part of accountable care organizations.  Accountable care organizations are one of the most innovative tools provided by the Affordable Care Act that will help us create a health care delivery system that is sustainable over the long term.

Today, we’re discussing a new initiative from the CMS Innovation Center, the Pioneer ACO Model.  I’m joined by Dr. Mai Pham and Dr. Mandy Cohen from the Innovation Center to provide us overview and answer your questions about the Pioneer ACO model.

I just want to make sure that folks know that this is not a press call.  This is for stakeholders only and also that the Encore recording of this call will be available about three or four hours after the conclusion of this call.  So, that means about 5:30 Eastern Time.  And you can access it by dialing 1-800-642-1687 and asking for call number 70961782.  If you have questions after this call ends, you may send them to pioneeraco@cms.hhs.gov.  That’s pioneeraco@cms.hhs.gov.

I’ll now turn the call over to Dr. Pham and Dr. Cohen.

Mandy Cohen: OK.  Thank you, Barb.  Hi, everyone.  My name is Dr. Mandy Cohen.  I’m the director of Stakeholder Engagement for the Innovation Center.  And we just wanted to welcome you all to the call today and thank you for taking the time and of your busy schedule to join us.

We’re going to be reviewing the Innovation Center’s new Pioneer ACO model, the request for applications that was announced just few weeks ago, and go through any questions you might have.  I think we all know that the path towards a sustainable health care system can’t be through cutting care or slitting down coverage.  It has to be through improving care.  And we can achieve better care, better health, and lower cost by putting patients at the center of our health care system.  And we believe Accountable Care Organizations or ACO‟s is the perfect example of how we can get there.

About two months ago, CMS published its initial proposed rules on how to implement ACO.  And the public comment period for that rule, the Medicare Shared Savings Program closed yesterday.  This call will not be addressing the Medicare Shared Savings Program; rather, it’s to discuss the Innovation Center’s new model, the Pioneer ACO model.

This model will offer an accelerated pathway performing an ACO to providers, who are already ahead of the pack in terms of coordinating care even before those new regulations for the Medicare Shared Savings Program go into effect.  So, again, we’ll only be focusing our comments today on the

Pioneer ACO model and answering questions about that request for (read complete transcript here).