Accelerating and Aligning Population-based Payment Models: Patient Attribution

The White Paper includes ten recommendations guiding the patient attribution process. The recommendations are guided by the following important principles.

• The Work Group recommendations refer to PBP models in which providers accept accountability for managing the full continuum of care from prevention to end-of-life care. These type of payment models have significant potential because they reward providers who successfully manage all or much of a patient’s care and enable providers to develop more innovative approaches to person-centered health care delivery.
• The Work Group recommendations start with a method to identify a patient-clinician dyad and using this information to attribute the patient to a provider group or delivery system. This underlying principle recognizes that a provider group or delivery system, not the individual clinician, is accountable for the total cost of care, quality, and outcomes for a patient population. Attribution does not preclude team-based care or patient use of other providers.
• The Work Group recommendations are intended for use in payment models that assume primary care providers are the principle starting point for managing a population across the entire continuum of care. As described in the White Paper, the provider group or delivery system that accepts accountability for a patient population must first identify the primary care and specialty care providers who will accept the role of primary care provider for patients.