CMS Administrator Seema Verma said April 25 that the agency will consider developing more mandatory payment models in the future.
Ms. Verma made the remarks during the National Association of Accountable Care Organizations' spring 2019 conference.
"Looking forward, you can expect that some of the models we have under development will be mandatory," she said. "One reason for mandatory models is that selection effects can be significant in voluntary models. Selection effects happen when only the providers who would benefit financially from a model choose to participate, thereby reducing the amount of savings that the model can generate. Requiring participation also helps us understand the impact of our models on a variety of provider types, so the data resulting from the model will be more broadly representative."
The remarks come the same week that CMS' Innovation Center said it is launching an initiative that provides primary care practices with five new payment options, including three direct contracting models.
HHS canceled and scaled back major mandatory bundled payment models in 2017 under the leadership of then-Secretary Tom Price, MD. On Nov. 8, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said the agency is reversing course and plans to roll out mandatory bundled payment demonstrations.