The Department of Medicine is thrilled to announce that the Stony Brook Kidney Center is one of only thirty practices in the country to be selected as a CMS Kidney Care First (KCF) Practice for Performance Year 2022.
CMS.gov (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) describes the program as follows: “The Kidney Care First (KCF) and Comprehensive Kidney Care Contracting (CKCC) Graduated, Professional, and Global Models will build upon the existing Comprehensive End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Care (CEC) Model structure – in which dialysis facilities, nephrologists, and other health care providers form ESRD-focused accountable care organizations to manage care for beneficiaries with ESRD – by adding strong financial incentives for health care providers to manage the care for Medicare beneficiaries with chronic kidney disease (CKD) stages 4 and 5 and ESRD, to delay the onset of dialysis and to incentivize kidney transplantation.”
“The models are designed to incentivize better management of kidney disease.”
“In the KCF Model, participating nephrologists and nephrology practices will receive adjusted capitated payments for managing care of aligned beneficiaries with CKD Stages 4 or 5, and for those on dialysis. These payments will be adjusted on the basis of health outcomes and utilization compared to both the participants’ own experience and national standards, and also performance on quality measures. In addition, KCF practices will receive a bonus payment for every aligned beneficiary who receives a kidney transplant, with the full amount of the bonus paid over three years following the transplant provided the transplant remains successful.” - CMS.gov
“We hope this will translate to improved quality metrics for our renal patients, and improve reimbursement for the Department of Medicine,” says Dr. Sandeep Mallipattu, Chief, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension.
Congratulations to the Stony Brook Kidney Center on achieving this very distinguished selection and honor.
