LOUISVILLE, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Kindred House Calls, the home-based primary care (“HBPC”) practice of Kindred Healthcare, Inc. (“Kindred”) (NYSE:KND), is one of more than 2,900 primary care practices nationwide participating in Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (“CPC+”), a partnership between payor partners from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”), state Medicaid agencies, commercial health plans, self-insured businesses and primary care providers. This partnership is designed to provide improved access to quality healthcare at lower costs.

“A robust primary care system is essential to achieve better care, smarter spending, and healthier people,” said Acting CMS Administrator Patrick Conway. “For this reason, CMS is committed to supporting primary care clinicians to deliver the best, most comprehensive primary care possible for their patients.”

Through CPC+, CMS will pay primary care practices a care management fee, initially set at an average of $15 per beneficiary per month in Track 1 and $28 per beneficiary per month in Track 2, to support enhanced, coordinated services on behalf of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries. Simultaneously, participating commercial, state and other federal insurance plans are also offering enhanced payment to primary care practices designed to support them in providing high-quality primary care on behalf of their members.

For patients, this means that physicians may offer longer and more flexible hours; use electronic health records; coordinate care with patients’ other healthcare providers; better engage patients and caregivers in managing their own care; and provide individualized, enhanced care for patients living with multiple chronic diseases and higher needs.

“CPC+ is an important step toward primary care payment reform. This multi-payor initiative incentivizes value and rewards quality, so when we perform well as practitioners, our patients benefit and we benefit,” said Thomas Lally, MD, President of Kindred House Calls. “We are excited about the opportunity to participate in this innovative program that aligns treatment goals and financial incentives, a crucial step as we move along the value-based spectrum.”

The five-year model started on January 1, 2017, with CMS soliciting a diverse pool of commercial health plans, state Medicaid agencies and self-insured businesses to work alongside Medicare to support comprehensive primary care. Public and private health plans in 14 regions across the country signed letters of intent with CMS to participate in this model: Arkansas, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas and Missouri’s Greater Kansas City region, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, New York’s Capital District-Hudson Valley region, Ohio and Kentucky’s Cincinnati-Dayton region, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania’s Greater Philadelphia Region, Rhode Island and Tennessee. The markets were selected in August 2016 based on the percentage of the total population covered by payer partners who expressed interest in joining this partnership.

Kindred House Calls will participate in its Colorado and Ohio markets, benefitting approximately 5,000 patients, while further building the Company’s expertise in value-based care.

“This is a great opportunity to expand Kindred’s expertise in emerging payment models and enhance our ability to deliver vital services in residential settings that patients prefer,” said Benjamin A. Breier, President and Chief Executive Officer of Kindred. “Value-based systems are the future of healthcare and the CPC+ initiative provides the Company yet another opportunity to demonstrate and fine-tune our capabilities and share our learnings across the organization.”

Eligible primary care practices in each market were invited to apply to participate in the winter of 2016. Through a competitive application process, CMS selected primary care practices within the selected markets to participate in CPC+. Practices were chosen based on their use of health information technology; ability to demonstrate recognition of advanced primary care delivery by leading clinical societies; service to patients covered by participating payer partners; participation in practice transformation and improvement activities; and diversity of geography, practice size and ownership structure.

CPC+ is administered by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMS Innovation Center). The CMS Innovation Center was created by the Affordable Care Act to test innovative payment and service delivery models that have the potential to reduce program expenditures while preserving or enhancing the quality of care. For more information about CPC+, visit: https://innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/comprehensive-primary-care-plus/.

Kindred House Calls began in 2013 with the acquisition of a medical practice in Ohio. It has since grown to become one of the largest HBPC practices in the nation, covering 12 markets in five states and deploying more than 100 practitioners who provide care to more than 10,000 patients each year. The average patient is homebound or challenged to access appropriate care, is 87 years old with at least five chronic conditions and is among the costliest 5% of all Medicare beneficiaries. Kindred House Calls’ practitioners typically make 40 to 50 home visits each week.

About Kindred Healthcare

Kindred Healthcare, Inc., a top-90 private employer in the United States, is a FORTUNE 500 healthcare services company based in Louisville, Kentucky with annual revenues of approximately $7.2 billion⁽¹⁾. As of October 1, 2016, Kindred through its subsidiaries had approximately 102,200 employees providing healthcare services in 2,702 locations in 46 states, including 82 long-term acute care hospitals, 19 inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, 91 nursing centers, 19 sub-acute units, 647 Kindred at Home home health, hospice and non-medical home care sites of service, 104 inpatient rehabilitation units (hospital-based) and contract rehabilitation service businesses which served 1,740 non-affiliated sites of service. Ranked as one of Fortune magazine’s Most Admired Healthcare Companies for seven years, Kindred’s mission is to promote healing, provide hope, preserve dignity and produce value for each patient, resident, family member, customer, employee and shareholder we serve. For more information, go to www.kindredhealthcare.com. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

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