CMS extends Maryland All-Payer Hospital Model through 2019

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services this week agreed to extend Maryland’s All-Payer Hospital Model contract through 2019 while it reviews the state’s proposal to progress to a Total Cost of Care All-Payer Model in 2020. Under the All-Payer Hospital Model, launched in 2014, Medicare, Medicaid, commercial and self-pay payers pay the same amount for the same service at the same hospital. The model requires the state to limit its annual all-payer per capita total hospital cost growth to 3.58%; and hospitals commit to certain performance goals and operate under fixed annual budgets, shifting incentives from volume to value. The proposed model for 2020 would extend the initiative beyond hospitals to other care