By 2030, CMS aims for all Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries to be in accountable care relationships. To help make that goal a reality, the CMS Innovation Center (CMMI) just announced a new, upside-only initiative to ease the transition to value-based care, called Making Care Primary.

Making Care Primary is aimed at helping independent primary care providers transition from the traditional fee-for-service (FFS) model to value-based payment. The application period is between September 4, 2023, and November 30, 2023.

This is an opportunity for practices considering dipping their toes into population-based payment to do so in a structured pathway, including $145k in advance payment for infrastructure setup for health IT tools, staffing, and process building, and up to 60% upward adjustment relative to FFS amounts.

We’ve prepared a cheat sheet that breaks down the essentials of the initiative, including:

• Eligibility details
• Information about the three different tracks in the program, representing growing levels of accountability
• How performance will be measured
• How payment works, including the upfront advance payment