Evaluating the Nation's Largest Primary Care Delivery Model: Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+)

Strengthening primary care is thought to be a critical way to promote health and reduce health care costs in the United States. CPC+ is an advanced alternative payment model for primary care that began in 2017 and builds on the foundation of the earlier Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) initiative, both implemented by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation in partnership with other private and public payers around the country. This evaluation uses a mixed-methods study to assess whether CPC+ improves quality, reduces expenditures, and results in better health for Medicare beneficiaries in thousands of primary care practices. We are analyzing claims data; surveys and qualitative interviews with patients, primary care practitioners, practice staff, practices, and payers; and data collected for CMS.

CPC+ is a public-private partnership that brings together CMS and 79 private and public payers. Together, the payers provide enhanced financial support for more than 3,000 practices in 18 regions to support fundamental changes in their care delivery toward accessible, comprehensive, team-based care for over 17 million patients. The 79 payer partners committed to align payment, data sharing, and quality metrics with CMS. CPC+ also includes a robust learning system to support practice transformation.

Findings from our evaluation of the third year of CPC+ can be found in the Third Annual Report and are summarized in the two-page Findings at a Glance. More detailed information can be found in the forthcoming Appendices to the Third Annual Report. CMS also summarizes the project in their forthcoming Perspective.

Our evaluation of the third year of CPC+ builds on our findings from the evaluation’s first and second years, as well as on our previous work, which includes an evaluation of CPC and research on patient-centered medical homes.