Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 31 / Tuesday, February 17, 2015 / Notices 8323 

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the Department. 

John Tschida, 

Director, National Institute on Disability, 

Independent Living, and Rehabilitation 

Research. 

[FR Doc. 2015–03122 Filed 2–13–15; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4154–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid 

Services 

[CMS–5514–N] 

Medicare Program; Oncology Care 

Model: Request for Applications 

AGENCY: Centers for Medicare & 

Medicaid Services (CMS), HHS. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: This notice announces a 

request for applications (RFA) for 

organizations to participate in the 

Oncology Care Model (OCM) beginning 

in 2016. 

DATES: Letter of Intent Submission 

Deadline: As described on the CMS 

Innovation Center Web site at http:// 

innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/ 

Oncology-Care/, interested payers must 

submit a nonbinding letter of intent by 

5:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) 

on March 19, 2015. Interested practices 

must submit a nonbinding letter of 

intent by 5:00 p.m. EDT on April 23, 

2015. 

Application Submission Deadline: 

Applications for payers and practices 

must be received by 5:00 p.m. EDT on 

June 18, 2015. Application materials 

and instructions are available at http:// 

innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/ 

Oncology-Care/. 

ADDRESSES: Letter of Intent forms must 

be submitted electronically in the PDF 

fillable format to 

OncologyCareModel@cms.hhs.gov. 

Letters of Intent will only be accepted 

via email. Applicants that submit a 

timely, complete Letter of Intent will be 

sent an authenticated web link and 

password with which to access the 

electronic, web-based application. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

OncologyCareModel@cms.hhs.gov for 

questions regarding the application 

process of OCM. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

The Center for Medicare and 

Medicaid Innovation (Innovation 

Center), within the Centers for Medicare 

& Medicaid Services (CMS), was created 

to test innovative payment and service 

delivery models to reduce program 

expenditures while preserving or 

enhancing the quality of care for 

Medicare, Medicaid, and Children’s 

Health Insurance Program (CHIP) 

beneficiaries. 

We are committed to continuous 

improvement for Medicare, Medicaid 

and CHIP beneficiaries. The goal of the 

Oncology Care Model (OCM) is to 

improve the health outcomes for people 

with cancer, improve the quality of 

cancer care, and reduce spending for 

cancer treatment. We expect that 

physician practices selected for 

participation in the model will be able 

to transform care delivery for their 

patients undergoing chemotherapy, 

leading to improved quality of care for 

beneficiaries at a decreased cost to 

payers. Through this care 

transformation, practices participating 

in OCM can reduce Medicare 

expenditures while improving cancer 

care for Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS) 

beneficiaries. 

Beneficiaries can experience 

improved health outcomes when health 

care providers work in a coordinated 

and person-centered manner. We are 

interested in partnering with payers and 

practitioners who are working to 

redesign care to deliver these aims. 

Episode-based payment approaches that 

reward practitioners who improve the 

quality of care they deliver, lower costs, 

and engage with quality and cost data 

that will inform their provision of care 

are potential mechanisms for CMS to 

further emphasize care coordination and 

enhanced care through practice 

transformation. 

OCM will test episode-based payment 

for oncology care, using a retrospective 

performance-based payment for an 

episode of chemotherapy. The request 

for applications (RFA) requests 

applications to test a model centered 

around a chemotherapy episode of care. 

For more details, see the RFA available 

on the Innovation Center Web site at 

http://innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/ 

Oncology-Care/. 

II. Provisions of the Notice 

The Innovation Center is operating 

this model under the authority of 

section 1115A of the Social Security Act 

(the Act). This RFA is directed to 

physician practices that provide 

oncology care as well as public and 

other health care payers. The Innovation 

Center hopes to engage at least 100 

physician practices that, in aggregate, 

will furnish care for approximately 

175,000 cancer care episodes for 

Medicare beneficiaries over the course 

of this 5-year model. 

The Innovation Center sees the 

following as key opportunities within 

OCM: 

• Promote shared decision-making, 

person-centered communication, 

evidence-based care, beneficiary access 

to care, and coordination across 

providers and settings. 

• Reduce complications of cancer and 

cancer treatments, as well as associated 

costs, through advanced care planning, 

increased use of high-value treatments, 

and reduction of inappropriate payment 

incentives. 

• Collect structured clinical data and 

integrate clinical trial enrollment into 

processes of care to facilitate quality 

improvement and accelerate clinical 

research. 

• Support the development and 

reporting of meaningful outcome 

measures. 

• Develop and monitor refined 

approaches to care delivery, which may 

improve the research infrastructure (for 

example, by facilitating improvement in 

the quality of evidence for existing 

therapies). 

• Encourage delivery of care in the 

lowest-cost medically-appropriate 

setting. 

• Refine a value-based payment 

system that encourages team-based care 

and workforce innovation. 

Participating practices must be able to 

meet the following practice 

requirements during the performance 

period: 

1. Treat patients with therapies 

consistent with nationally recognized 

clinical guidelines. 

2. Provide and attest to 24 hours a 

day, 7 days a week patient access to an 

appropriate clinician who has real-time 

access to practice’s medical records. 

3. Use of ONC-certified electronic 

health record (EHR) technology as 

described in the RFA. 

4. Utilize data for continuous quality 

improvement. 

5. Provide core functions of patient 

navigation. 

6. Document a care plan that contains 

the 13 components in the Institute of 

Medicine Care Management Plan. 

Participating practices in OCM will 

continue to receive standard Medicare 

FFS payments during OCM episodes. 


tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
8324 Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 31 / Tuesday, February 17, 2015 / Notices 

OCM will also provide an opportunity 

for participating practices to receive 

retrospective episode-based 

performance payments. After 

calculating the benchmark for each 

OCM participant, CMS will set a target 

price for chemotherapy episodes, which 

includes a discount. Participants whose 

Medicare expenditures are below the 

target price may receive semi-annual 

lump-sum performance-based 

payments, subject to the achievement of 

quality measures. In addition to the 

performance-based payments, 

participants will receive a PerBeneficiary-Per-Month payment (PBPM) 

for Medicare beneficiaries with nearly 

all cancer types for each of the 6 months 

of the episode. The monthly PBPM 

payment is intended to pay for the 

enhanced services driven by the 

practice requirements, aimed at 

transforming practices towards 

comprehensive, person-centered, and 

coordinated care. The OCM PBPM is 

$160 per OCM beneficiary per month for 

the duration of each 6-month episode, 

and will remain constant for the 5-year 

model. 

OCM also aims to incorporate other 

payers in addition to Medicare, such as 

commercial insurers and state Medicaid 

agencies. Payers must also be able to 

meet the following requirements for 

participation in the model: 

1. Commit to participation in OCM for 

its 5-year duration, and start 

performance period no later than 90 

days after OCM–FFS’ performance 

period. 

2. Sign a Memorandum of 

Understanding with the Innovation 

Center. 

3. Enter into agreements with 

physician practices participating in 

OCM that include requirements to 

provide high quality care. 

4. Share model methodologies with 

the Innovation Center. 

5. Provide payments to practices for 

enhanced services and performance as 

required in the RFA. 

6. Align practice quality and 

performance measures with OCM, when 

possible. 

7. Provide participating practices with 

aggregate and patient-level data about 

payment and utilization for their 

patients receiving care in OCM, at 

regular intervals. 

The OCM start date is expected to be 

in spring 2016. 

For more specific details regarding 

OCM (including the RFA), we refer 

applicants to the informational 

materials on the Innovation Center Web 

site at: http://innovation.cms.gov/ 

initiatives/Oncology-Care/. Applicants 

are responsible for monitoring the Web 

site to obtain the most current 

information available. 

III. Collection of Information 

Requirements 

Section 1115A(d)(3) of the Act, as 

added by section 3021 of the Affordable 

Care Act (Pub. L. 111–148), states that 

chapter 35 of title 44, United States 

Code (the Paperwork Reduction Act of 

1995), shall not apply to the testing and 

evaluation of models or expansion of 

such models under this section. 

Consequently, this document need not 

be reviewed by the Office of 

Management and Budget under the 

authority of the Paperwork Reduction 

Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 35). 

Dated: December 22, 2014. 

Marilyn Tavenner, 

Administrator, Centers for Medicare & 

Medicaid Services. 

[FR Doc. 2015–03060 Filed 2–12–15; 11:15 am] 

BILLING CODE 4120–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Administration for Children and 

Families 

Proposed Information Collection 

Activity; Comment Request 

Title: Uniform Project Description 

(UPD) Program Narrative Format for 

Discretionary Grant Application Forms. 

OMB No.: 0970–0139. 

Description: The proposed 

information collection would renew the 

Administration for Children and 

Families (ACF) Uniform Project 

Description (UPD). The UPD provides a 

uniform grant application format for 

applicants to submit project information 

in response to ACF discretionary 

funding opportunity announcements. 

ACF uses this information, along with 

other OMB-approved information 

collections (Standard Forms), to 

evaluate and rank applications. Use of 

the UPD helps to protect the integrity of 

ACF’s award selection process. All ACF 

discretionary grant programs are 

required to use this application format. 

An ACF application consists of general 

information and instructions; the 

Standard Form 424 series, which 

requests basic information, budget 

information, and assurances; the Project 

Description that requests the applicant 

to describe how program objectives will 

be achieved; a rationale for the project’s 

budgeted costs; and other assurances 

and certifications. Guidance for the 

content of information requested in the 

Project Description is based in OMB 

Circular 45 CFR 75.203. 

Respondents: Applicants to ACF 

Discretionary Funding Opportunity 

Announcements. 

ANNUAL BURDEN ESTIMATES

Instrument Number of 

respondents 

Number of 

responses per 

respondent 

Average 

burden hours 

per response 

Total burden 

hours 

ACF Uniform Project Description ..................................................................... 4,850 1 60 291,000 

Estimated Total Annual Burden 

Hours: 291,000. 

In compliance with the requirements 

of Section 506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995, the 

Administration for Children and 

Families is soliciting public comment 

on the specific aspects of the 

information collection described above. 

Copies of the proposed collection of 

information can be obtained and 

comments may be forwarded by writing 

to the Administration for Children and 

Families, Office of Planning, Research 

and Evaluation, 370 L’Enfant 

Promenade SW., Washington, DC 20447, 

Attn: ACF Reports Clearance Officer. 

Email address: infocollection@

acf.hhs.gov. All requests should be 

identified by the title of the information 

collection. 

ACF specifically requests comments 

on: (a) Whether the proposed collection 

of information is necessary for the 

proper performance of the functions of 

the agency, including whether the 

information shall have practical utility; 

(b) the accuracy of the agency’s estimate 

of the burden of the proposed collection 

of information; (c) the quality, utility, 

and clarity of the information to be 

collected; and (d) ways to minimize the 

burden information to be collected; and 

(d) ways to minimize the burden of the 

collection of information on 

respondents, including through the use 


tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES