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Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups

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Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups

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Transition from Fee-for-Service to Value-Based Reimbursement for Hospitals, Physicians, and Clinical Laboratories Continues, Albeit Slowly, Reports Say 

Medical laboratories and anatomic pathologists may need to squeeze into narrow networks to be paid under value-based schemes, especially where Medicare Advantage is concerned

Pathologists have likely heard the arguments in favor of value-based payment versus fee-for-service (FFS) reimbursement models: FFS encourages providers to order medically unnecessary procedures and lab tests. FFS removes incentives for providers to order patient services more carefully. Fraudsters can generate huge volumes of FFS claims that take payers months/years to recognize and stop.

Studies that favor value-based payment schemes support these claims. But do hospitals and other healthcare providers also accept them? And how is value-based reimbursement really doing?

To find out, Chicago-based thought leadership and advisory company 4Sight Health culled data from various organizations’ reports that suggest value-based reimbursement shows signs of growth as well as signs of stagnation.

Value-Based Payment Has Its Ups and Downs

Healthcare journalist David Burda is News Editor and Columnist at 4Sight Health. In his article, “Is Value-Based Reimbursement Mostly Dead or Slightly Alive?” Burda commented on data from various industry reports that indicated value-based reimbursement shows “signs of life.” For example:

On the other hand, Burda reported that value-based reimbursement also has these declining indicators:

  • 39.3% of provider payments “flowed” through FFS plans in 2020 with no link to cost or quality. This was unchanged since 2019. (HCPLAN report)
  • 19.8% of FFS payments to providers in 2020 were linked to cost or quality, down from 22.5% in 2019. (HCPLAN report)
  • 88% of doctors reported accepting FFS payments in 2019, an increase from 87% in 2018. (AMA report)

Does Today’s Healthcare Industry Support Value-based Care?

A survey of 680 physicians conducted by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions suggests the answer could be “not yet.” In “Equipping Physicians for Value-Based Care,” Deloitte reported:

  • “Physician compensation continues to emphasize volume more than value.
  • “Availability and use of data-driven tools to support physicians in practicing value-based care continue to lag.
  • “Existing care models do not support value-based care.”

Deloitte analysts wrote, “Physicians increasingly recognize their role in improving the affordability of care. We repeated a question we asked six years ago and saw a large increase in the proportion of physicians who say they have a prominent role in limiting the use of unnecessary treatments and tests: 76% in 2020 vs. 57% in 2014.

“Physicians also recognize that today’s care models are not geared toward value,” Deloitte continued. “They see many untapped opportunities for improving quality and efficiency. They estimate that even today, sizable portions of their work can be performed by nonphysicians (30%) in nontraditional settings (30%) and/or can be automated (18%), creating opportunities for multidisciplinary care teams and clinicians to work at the top of their license.”

Hospital CFOs Also See Opportunities for Value-based Care

In his 4sight Health article, Burda reported on data from a “Guidehouse Center for Health Insights’ analysis of a 2021 Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) survey of more than 100 health systems CFOs that found that most said they are still interested in seeking value-based payment arrangements this year.”

According to the HFMA survey, among the arrangement CFOs indicated, 59% expressed interest in Medicare Advantage value-based payment contracts.

This could be problematic for clinical laboratories, according to Robert Michel, Editor-in-Chief of Dark Daily and our sister publication The Dark Report. According to Guidehouse, “Nearly 60% of health systems plan to advance into risk-based Medicare Advantage models in 2022.”

Medicare Advantage (MA) enrollments have escalated over 10 years: 26.4 million people of the 62.7 million eligible for Medicare chose MA in 2021, noted a Kaiser Family Foundation brief that also noted MA enrollment in 2021 was up by 2.4 million beneficiaries or 10% over 2020.

Graph of Medicare Advantage Enrollment
The graph above is taken from the Kaiser Family Foundation report, “Medicare Advantage in 2021: Enrollment Update and Key Trends.” According to the KFF, “In 2021, more than four in 10 (42%) Medicare beneficiaries—26.4 million people out of 62.7 million Medicare beneficiaries overall—are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans; this share has steadily increased over time since the early 2000s.” Since MA employs narrow networks for its healthcare providers, it’s likely this trend will continue to affect clinical laboratories that may find it difficult to access these providers. (Graphic copyright: Kaiser Family Foundation.)

“The shift from Medicare Part B—where any lab can bill Medicare on behalf of patients for doctor visits and outpatient care, including lab tests—to Medicare Advantage is a serious financial threat for smaller and regional labs that do a lot of Medicare Part B testing. The Medicare Advantage plans often have networks that exclude all but a handful of clinical laboratories as contracted providers,” Michel cautioned. “Moving into the future, it’s incumbent on regional and smaller clinical laboratories to develop value-added services that solve health plans’ pain points and encourage insurers to include local labs in their networks.”

Medical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups need to be aware of this trend. Michel says value-based care programs call on clinical laboratories to collaborate with healthcare partners toward goals of closing care gaps.

“Physicians and hospitals in a value-based environment need a different level of service and professional consultation from the lab and pathology group because they are being incented to detect disease earlier and be active in managing patients with chronic conditions to keep them healthy and out of the hospital,” he added.

Value-based reimbursement may eventually replace fee-for-service contracts. The change, however, is slow and clinical laboratories should monitor for opportunities and potential pitfalls the new payment arrangements might bring.

—Donna Marie Pocius

Related Information:

Is Value-Based Reimbursement Mostly Dead or Slightly Alive?

APM Measurement Progress of Alternative Payment Models: 2020-2021 Methodology and Results Report   

Policy Research Perspectives: Payment and Delivery in 2020

Equipping Physicians for Value-Based Care: What Needs to Change in Care Models, Compensation, and Decision-Making Tools

Nearly 60% of Health Systems Pursuing Risk-Based Medicare Advantage Models in 2022, Guidehouse Analysis Shows

Medicare Advantage in 2021: Enrollment Update and Key Trends

CMS’ Latest Value-Based Reimbursement Model Explores Geographic Direct Contracting for Medicare and Focuses on Costs and Quality

New Value-Based Payment Model for Oncology Care Could Affect How Pathologists and Medical Laboratories Get Paid for Their Services

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation is considering adding clinical laboratory services to bundled payments in its proposed Oncology Care First model

Anatomic pathologists, surgical pathologists, and medical laboratories could find some of their services shifted to a bundled payment scheme as the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) considers a new value-based alternative payment model (APM) for providers of cancer care.

CMMI, an organization within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), is charged with developing and testing new healthcare delivery and payment models as alternatives to the traditional fee-for-service (FFS) model. On November 1, 2019, CMMI released an informal Request for Information (RFI) seeking comments for the proposed Oncology Care First (OCF) model, which would be the successor to the Oncology Care Model (OCM) launched in 2016.

“The inefficiency and variation in oncology care in the United States is well documented, with avoidable hospitalizations and emergency department visits occurring frequently, high service utilization at the end of life, and use of high-cost drugs and biologicals when lower-cost, clinically equivalent options exist,” the CMMI RFI states.

With the proposed new model, “the Innovation Center aims to build on the lessons learned to date in OCM and incorporate feedback from stakeholders,” the RFI notes.

How the Oncology Care First Model Works

The OCF program, which is voluntary, will be open to physician groups and hospital outpatient departments. CMMI anticipates that testing of the model will run from January 2021 through December 2025.

It will offer two payment mechanisms for providers that choose to participate:

  • A Monthly Population Payment (MPP) would apply to a provider’s Medicare beneficiaries with “cancer or a cancer-related diagnosis,” the RFI states. It would cover Evaluation and Management (EM) services as well as drug administration services and a set of “Enhanced Services,” including 24/7 access to medical records.

Of particular interest to medical laboratories, the RFI also states that “we are considering the inclusion of additional services in the monthly population payment, such as imaging or medical laboratory services, and seek feedback on adding these or other services.”

  • In addition, providers could receive a Performance-Based Payment (PBP) if they reduce expenditures for patients receiving chemotherapy below a “target amount” determined by past Medicare payments. If providers don’t meet the threshold, they could be required to repay CMS.

CMMI initially announced the public listening session and set a Nov. 25 deadline for written feedback, then extended it to Dec. 13, 2019. The feedback period is now closed.

Practices that wish to participate in the OCF model must go through an application process. It is also open to participation by private payers. CMS reports that 175 practices and 10 payers are currently participating in the 2016 Oncology Care Model (OCM).

“We want better quality care for patients,” explained Lara Strawbridge, MPH (above), Director of the CMMI Division of Ambulatory Payment Models, during a US Department of Health and Human Services public listening session on Nov. 8. “We hope that at the same time, costs are maintained or reduced.” The new OCF payment model will feature a Monthly Population Payment mechanism that could include reimbursements for medical laboratory services, which has some medical laboratory organizations concerned. (Photo copyright: Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.)

Medical Lab Leaders Concerned about the CMMI OCF Model

One group raising concerns about the inclusion of medical laboratory service reimbursements in the Monthly Population Payment scheme is the Personalized Medicine Coalition. “Laboratory services are crucial to the diagnosis and management of many cancers and are an essential component of personalized medicine,” wrote Cynthia A. Bens, the organization’s senior VP for public policy, in an open letter to CMMI Acting Director Amy Bassano. “We are concerned that adding laboratory service fees to the MPP may cause providers to view them as expenses that are part of the total cost of delivering care, rather than an integral part of the solution to attain high-value care,” Bens wrote.

She advised CMMI to “seek further input from the laboratory and provider communities on how best to contain costs within the OCF model, while ensuring the proper deployment of diagnostics and other laboratory services.”

Members of the coalition include biopharma companies, diagnostic companies, patient advocacy groups, and clinical laboratory testing services. Lab testing heavyweights Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) and Laboratory Corporation of America (NYSE:LH) are both members.

CMS ‘Doubles Down’ on OCM

The proposal received criticism from other quarters as well. “While private- and public-sector payers would be well served to adopt and support a VBP [value-based payment] program for cancer care, we need to better understand some of the shortcomings of the original OCM design and adopt lessons learned from other successful VBP models to ensure uptake by providers and ultimately better oncology care for patients,” wrote members of the Oncology Care Model Work Group in a Health Affairs blog post. They added that with the new model, “CMS seems to double down on the same design as the OCM.”

Separately, CMMI has proposed a controversial Radiation Oncology (RO) alternative payment model (APM) that would be mandatory for practices in randomly-selected metro areas. The agency estimates that it would apply to approximately 40% of the radiotherapy practices in the US.

The RO APM was originally set to take effect this year, but after pushback from industry groups, CMS delayed implementation until July 18, 2022, Healthleaders Media reported.

These recent actions should serve to remind pathologists and clinical laboratories that CMS continues to move away from fee-for-service and toward value-based care payment models, and that it is critical to plan for changing reimbursement strategies.

—Stephen Beale

Related Information:

Oncology Care First: What You Need to Know about the Proposed Oncology Care First

Redesigning Oncology Care: A Look at CMS’ Proposed Oncology First Model

CMS, CMMI Seek Feedback on Oncology Care First, Successor to OCM

We Need Better Quality Measures for Oncology Care First

What You Should Know about the Proposed Oncology Care First Model

Oncology Care First Resource Hub

ACR Expresses Concerns about Potential Oncology Care First Payment Model

Redesigning the Oncology Care Model

ACR Wants CMS Radiation Oncology Model Delayed

ASTRO Calls for Voluntary Start, Scaling Back Excessive Cuts in CMS’ Proposed Radiation Oncology Model

Mandatory CMS Radiation Oncology Model Goes on the Backburner

CMS Seeks ‘New Direction’ for its Innovation Center as the Agency Evaluates Current Value-Based Payment Models for Medicare Services, including Medical Laboratory Testing

Federal agency receives input on eight focus areas as it looks for ways to enable providers ‘to design and offer new approaches to delivering care’

Medical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups preparing for the transition from fee-for-service healthcare will want to keep a close eye on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The federal agency’s administrator plans to set a “new direction” for CMS as it shifts to value-based reimbursement models for Medicare services that could impact clinical laboratory revenues.

In an informal Request for Information (RFI), the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) sought feedback on a “new direction to promote patient-centered care and test market-driven reforms that empower beneficiaries as consumers, provide price transparency, increase choices and competition to drive quality, reduce costs, and improve outcomes.”

CMS to ‘Move Away’ from Engineering Healthcare ‘From Afar’

The agency requested input on eight focus areas:

1. Increased participation in Advanced Alternative Payment Models (APMs);

2. Consumer-directed care and market-based innovation models;

3. Physician specialty models;

4. Prescription drug models;

5. Medicare Advantage innovation models;

6. State-based and local innovation;

7. Mental and behavioral health models; and,

8. Program integrity.

Comments from healthcare providers, clinicians, states, payers, and stakeholders were accepted through November 20, 2017.

In a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) op-ed, CMS Administrator Seema Verma explained the agency’s process moving forward. “We will move away from the assumption that Washington can engineer a more efficient healthcare system from afar—that we should specify the processes healthcare providers are required to follow,” she wrote.

CMS Administrator Seema Verma (above) plans to lead the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation “in a new direction” and may be signaling a willingness to give providers more flexibility with value-based care payment models for Medicare services. (Photo copyright: Healthcare Dive.)

The RFI states the new model design will follow six guiding principles:

1. Choice and competition in the market;

2. Provider choice and incentives;

3. Patient-centered care;

4. Benefit design and price transparency;

5. Transparent model design and evaluation; and,

6. Small scale testing.

Providers Need Freedom to Design New Approaches to Healthcare

Verma said CMS plans to review all Innovation Center models to determine “what is working and should continue, and what isn’t and shouldn’t.” She voiced concern that the complexity of some of the current models may have encouraged consolidation in the healthcare system, resulting in fewer choices for patients.

“We must shift away from a fee-for-service system that reimburses only on volume and move toward a system that holds providers accountable for outcomes and allows them to innovate,” Verma wrote in the WSJ op-ed. “Providers need the freedom to design and offer new approaches to delivering care. Our goal is to increase flexibility by providing more waivers from current requirements.”

Actual Progress of Value-based Healthcare ‘Herky-Jerky’

In its reporting on the recent CMS announcements, Healthcare DIVE suggested that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) “is looking to make some potentially major changes” in value-based payment models.

However, Neil Smiley, CEO of Loopback Analytics, which assists healthcare organizations with managing outcome-based care, believes the transition to value-based care may face stiffer headwinds under the new administration. He points to an August CMS proposal that canceled some mandatory bundled payment programs and scaled back others as an indication that healthcare transformation could be slowing.

“The pace at which CMS committed to rolling out value-based care is fundamentally different from the pace we’re currently seeing,” he told Health IT. “The progress toward value-based care, instead of this steady momentum they expected, is more of a herky-jerky fashion.”

Modify, Don’t Abandon Existing Payment Models, suggests HCTTF

The Health Care Transformation Task Force (HCTTF), a 42-member industry consortium, was among the stakeholders who responded to CMS’ RFI. In a 22-page letter, the task force reiterated its support for the healthcare system’s transformation to value-based payment and care delivery, while outlining areas for improvements. The group urged CMS to continue to develop new models while modifying, rather than abandoning, existing models that show promise and need time to achieve a lasting return.

“We would like CMS to continue support for promising models while balancing the current portfolio with new, innovative payment models,” Clare Wrobel, Director of Payment Reform Models at HCTTF, told Home Health Care News. “[But] it would be a mistake to discard current models that providers have already invested in and are showing real promise.”

Smiley, meanwhile, suggests clinical laboratory managers, pathologists, and other healthcare providers keep watch as healthcare transformation continues to evolve.

“The fee-for-service model, love it or hate it, is not dying. The organism has adapted,” he told Health IT. “For those that were aggressive early adopters of value-based care and really believed what they were hearing, and have gone fully after value-based care, some of them may feel a little exposed. If they go too hard too fast, they may suffer economically if they misjudge the pace at which this moves.”

—Andrea Downing Peck

Related Information:

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services: Innovation Center New Direction

Medicare and Medicaid Need Innovation

CMS Seeks ‘New Direction’ for Innovation Center

Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement Payment Model

Task Force Calls on CMS to Encourage Alternative Payment Models

CMS Request for Information: Innovation Center New Direction

Task Force Urges CMS to Preserve Value Based Payment Models

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