[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 114 (Tuesday, June 14, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 34712-34713]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-14678]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

[CMS-5501-N2]


Medicare Program; Pioneer Accountable Care Organization Model; 
Extension of the Submission Deadlines for the Letters of Intent and 
Applications

AGENCY: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), HHS.

ACTION: Notice of extension of deadlines.

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SUMMARY: This notice extends the deadlines for the submission of the 
Pioneer Accountable Care Organization Model letters of intent to June 
30, 2011 and the applications to August 19, 2011.

DATES: Letter of Intent Submission Deadline: Interested organizations 
must submit a non-binding letter of intent by June 30, 2011 as 
described on the Innovation Center Web site at http://innovations.cms.gov/areas-of-focus/seamless-and-coordinated-care-models/pioneer-aco.
    Application Submission Deadline: Applications must be postmarked on 
or before August 19, 2011. The Pioneer Accountable Care Organization 
Model

[[Page 34713]]

Application is available at: http://innovations.cms.gov/areas-of-focus/seamless-and-coordinated-care-models/pioneer-aco-application/.

ADDRESSES: Applications should be submitted by mail to the following 
address by the date specified in the DATES section of this notice:

Pioneer ACO Model, Attention: Maria Alexander, Center for Medicare and 
Medicaid Innovation, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Mail 
Stop S3-13-05, 7500 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21244-1850.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Maria Alexander, (410) 786-4792.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    We are committed to achieving the three-part aim of better health, 
better health care, and lower per-capita costs for Medicare, Medicaid, 
and Children's Health Insurance Program beneficiaries. One potential 
mechanism for achieving this goal is for CMS to partner with groups of 
health care providers of services and suppliers with a mechanism for 
shared governance that have formed an Accountable Care Organization 
(ACO) through which they work together to manage and coordinate care 
for a specified group of patients. We will pursue such partnerships 
through two complementary efforts, the Medicare Shared Savings Program, 
and initiatives undertaken by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid 
Innovation (Innovation Center).
    The Pioneer ACO Model is an Innovation Center initiative targeted 
at organizations that can demonstrate the improvements in financial and 
clinical performance with respect to the care of Medicare beneficiaries 
that are possible in a mature ACO. To be eligible to participate in the 
Pioneer ACO Model, organizations would ideally already be coordinating 
care for a significant portion of patients under financial risk sharing 
contracts and be positioned to transform both their care and financial 
models from fee-for-service to a three-part aim, value based model.
    On May 17, 2011, we posted a request for applications to 
participate in the Pioneer ACO Model on the Innovation Center Web site 
and we subsequently published a notice announcing the request for 
applications in the May 20, 2011 Federal Register (76 FR 29249). On the 
Innovation Center Web site, we specified that the submission deadline 
for the letter of intent was June 10, 2011 and that the application 
deadline was to be postmarked on or before July 18, 2011. For more 
details see the request for application which is available on the 
Innovation Center Web site at http://innovations.cms.gov/areas-of-focus/seamless-and-coordinated-care-models/pioneer-aco. However, in the 
May 20, 2011 notice, we specified that the submission deadlines were 
June 10, 2011 and not later than 5 p.m. on July 19, 2011, respectively. 
Therefore, in the June 8, 2011 Federal Register (76 FR 33306), we 
published a correction notice that corrected our error in the 
application submission deadline.

II. Provisions of the Notice

    The Innovation Center is committed to working with stakeholders to 
develop initiatives to test innovative payment and service delivery 
models to reduce program expenditures while enhancing the quality of 
care available to beneficiaries. Being responsive to the suggestions of 
the stakeholder community is critical to the success of the Innovation 
Center's efforts to achieve the three-part aim of better healthcare, 
better health, and reduced costs through improvement. As part of this 
commitment, and based on the feedback from the community of potential 
applicants, the Innovation Center is extending the following deadlines 
relating to the Pioneer ACO Model: (1) The deadline for submission of 
the letter of intent has been extended to June 30, 2011; and (2) the 
deadline for the submission of the application has been extended to 
August 19, 2011. Therefore in the DATES section of this notice, we 
included the new submissions deadlines and in the ADDRESSES section we 
provide the address to which the applications must be mailed.

    Authority: Section 1115A of the Social Security Act.

    Dated: June 8, 2011.
Donald M. Berwick,
Administrator, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
[FR Doc. 2011-14678 Filed 6-9-11; 4:15 pm]
BILLING CODE 4120-01-P