Contract & Network Update
Empowering Patients to Make Decisions about Their Healthcare – Medicare Beneficiaries Voluntary Alignment Process
Voluntary alignment is the process that lets Medicare FFS Beneficiaries select of “voluntarily align” with a primary clinician.
When to start: CMS will include all Beneficiaries who have voluntarily aligned with their primary clinician by logging into MyMedicare.gov prior to 9/30 of the year preceding the performance year.
What will happen: The beneficiary’s selection will override prospectively the claims-based assignment methodology. Beneficiaries may change their designation at any time through MyMedicare.gov and the changes will be incorporated into the next performance year when CMS counts the assignment.
See the Voluntary Alignment ACO Fact Sheet for participating providers for additional details.
ACO participating providers must ensure that Medicare FFS beneficiaries are notified about their ability to, and the process by which, to identify or change identification of the individual he or she designated as their primary clinician for purposes of voluntary alignment.
For your Medicare Beneficiaries – Choose Your Primary Clinician on Medicare.gov – can be given to Medicare FFS Beneficiaries to register their primary clinician and make changes as appropriate.
Impact on Beneficiaries: It’s important to note that voluntary alignment is optional for beneficiaries and does not affect their Medicare benefits or restrict their ability to choose a doctor in any way. Regardless of ACO assignment or designation of a primary clinician, Medicare FFS beneficiaries may continue to see any Medicare provider.
For more information regarding this information and opportunity for voluntary alignment, please reach out to Karen Ashline at kashline@cvph.org.
