OCM Nears Its June 30 Conclusion Without Successor in Place

The Oncology Care Model (OCM) that CMS’s Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) launched almost six years ago is nearing its June 30 end. And while CMMI introduced its Oncology Care First model in November 2019 with an eye on the OCM successor launching before its predecessor’s end, it is unclear what the program’s status is at this point. OCM participants tell AIS Health, a division of MMIT, that their overall experience has been good as they await next steps from CMMI.

The OCM voluntary pilot started in July 2016 with 17 payers and 196 practices; five payers and 126 practices currently are participating. While it began as a five-year program, CMMI extended it for one additional year in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The program reimburses providers for episodes of care in the form of a per-beneficiary per-month payment, as well as a possible performance-based payment, if Medicare expenditures are below a target price for an episode. The amount of the payment is tied to a provider’s achievement on various quality measures. All participants began with one-sided risk but could shift to two-sided risk in 2017. Following the 2018 introduction of an alternative two-sided risk arrangement, starting in January 2020, practices that did not earn at least one performance-based payment had to enter one of the two-sided risk options or leave the OCM. Practices that earned at least one performance-based payment could remain in one-sided risk.

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