A new initiative, recently announced, is expected to deliver stronger health outcomes by giving medical practices the technical assistance and peer-level support they need to deliver efficient patient-centered care.
As a new model of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative will award $840 million for the creation of evidence-based, peer-led collaboratives and practice transformation networks to support physicians in providing high-quality care.
“The Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative will achieve a number of important goals,” said American Medical Association (AMA) Board Chair Barbara L. McAneny, MD, who participated in a CMS call announcing the initiative. “It will foster collaboration among a broad community of practices of various sizes, including collaboration between primary care physicians and specialists. It will also develop a network for sharing information among medical societies as well as multi-stakeholder regional collaboratives to support practice transformation.”
The networks, which will be announced in the late spring, are expected to support 150,000 clinicians beginning May 1. Anticipated strategies include giving physicians better access to patient information, expanding how patients can communicate with their health care team and improving coordination of care.
The AMA has been urging CMS to assist physician practices in their efforts to adopt new payment and delivery models under physician leadership, a primary goal of this new model.
