On June 4, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that they are accepting applications for the Performance Year 1 cohort of the Direct Contracting Professional and Global Options. Direct Contracting is intended to test whether the risk-based payment strategies available under the model align financial incentives and offer model participants (Direct Contracting Entities or DCEs). Each DCE must contract with Direct Contracting Participant Providers, which may include, but are not limited to, physicians or other practitioners in group practice arrangements, networks of individual practices of physicians or other practitioners, hospitals employing physicians or other practitioners, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), Rural Health Clinics (RHCs), and Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs). Applications for Performance Year 1 are due by July 6, 2020, for a start date of April 1, 2021. Find more information here.
