C-TAC’s Senior Regulatory Advisor, Dr. Marian Grant, co-authored a recent Journal of the American Geriatrics Society article on how the new Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) GUIDE Dementia care model is actually a serious illness model. The GUIDE model is the first CMMI model to address all 11 of CTAC’s principles for models for serious illness care. The lead author, Dr. Brystana Kaufman, a 2023 Health and Aging Policy Fellow, was placed with the palliative care team at CMMI and she also worked with C-TAC last year.
The article notes that the GUIDE model also breaks new ground as the first CMMI model to calculate cost-savings across both the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs. Historically, savings in one program were not able to be attributed to the other, but this model spans the two programs. The anticipated savings come from the increased GUIDE model support for beneficiaries living in the community that will hopefully delay their going to nursing homes (primarily paid for by Medicaid) as well as reduce hospital and emergency department use (primarily paid for by Medicare).
Applications for the GUIDE model closed in January and are now being evaluated by CMMI with the model to launch on July 1, 2024, and run for eight years. C-TAC has been working with our Coalition members and CMMI to clarify elements of the model and will share the announcement of selected programs when it comes out later this spring.
