Highlights of NRACC Performance

Between 2015 and 2019, the National Rural Accountable Care Consortium’s (NRACC) Practice Transformation Network (PTN) worked with more than 8,000 clinicians and exceeded program commitments to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). We used the Plan-Do-Study-Act model to teach practices to utilize nurse-led annual wellness visits, to establish a compliant chronic care management program and we teach proper quality-data monitoring and reporting techniques. Under NRACC’s guidance, our practices have collectively more than tripled the number of patients enrolled in chronic care (from 1.5% of patients enrolled at baseline to 4.9%) and increased annual wellness visit rates by 42%. Thanks to NRACC’s practice interventions, our enrolled clinics have:

• prevented 9,270 avoidable hospitalizations, or 747% of our CMS program goal;
• accrued $270 million in health care cost savings for CMS via NRACC initiatives, 144% of program goal;
• avoided 1,937 unnecessary test and procedures, 335% of the program goal; and
• improved health outcomes on key quality measures for 116,537 patients, 328% of program goal.

NRACC also ranks among the top Practice Transformation Networks for having supported clinicians moving into Alternative Payment Models (APMs). We have assisted more than 6,100 clinicians move to APMs. This success extends to rural; 757 of 1033 of our previously-enrolled brick-and-mortar rural practice locations have graduated to APM participation. 

NRACC has enjoyed demonstratable success in helping clients to increase their Quality Payment Program Scores for the Merit Based Incentive Payment System; our average scores were 5.2% point above the national average in performance year 2018 and our clients’ median scores were 7.7% above the national average.

Medicare goal is to have at least 90% of payments tied to quality and value by 2018.

The Consortium provided value-based infrastructure support which included:

Set up your billable care coordination service

• Train and mentor your care coordinators
• Implement Care Management Module for patient tracking and care coordination
• Develop strategies to provide 24/7 access to health advice and information

Redesign your practice to manage population health

• Learn about patient tracking and attribution systems
• Modify clinic workflow to address care gaps
• Implement clinic workflows to improve ambulatory quality scores
• Promote evidence-based medicine
• Measure and improve patient satisfaction at point of care

Create infrastructure to prepare for Alternative Payment Models

• Develop patient-centered, clinician-led care teams
• Facilitate coordinated, integrated care
• Promote culture of quality and safety
• Increase access to primary care
• Develop a patient and family council

Increase your revenue to preserve your future

• Learn about new performance measures, quality reporting and payment systems,
  such as the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)
• Maximize additional population health payments
• Implement workflow and protocols to prevent value-based payment penalties
• Identify the right advanced payment models for your community