“The new model involves Medicare working with commercial payers and state Medicaid programs to tweak the way they pay providers for care management in an effort to find better and less expensive ways to improve health outcomes,” the publication said.

“Providers can participate in two ways. In Track 1, the CMS will pay a monthly fee for specific services in addition to the fee-for-service Medicare payments.

“In Track 2, practices will also receive a monthly care-management fee, but instead of full Medicare fee-for-service payments for primary care they will receive reduced Medicare fee-for-service payments and up-front payments. This hybrid model allows practices to provide care outside of the traditional face-to-face encounter, the agency said.”

Practices might offer telemedicine visits or  provide longer office visits for patients with complex needs.

“But regulatory hurdles and bad experiences with an earlier pilot program could lead to poor participation,” Modern Healthcare said. “Experts say the model also could steer providers away from alternate payment models like Accountable Care Organizations….”