The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published a final rule and interim final rule with comment period that cancels the Episode Payment Models (EPM) and Cardiac Rehabilitation (CR) Incentive Payment Model and rescinds the regulations governing these models in the December 1, 2017 Federal Register. It also implements certain revisions to the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) model. Some of these revisions include:

• Allowing certain hospitals selected for participation in the CJR model a one-time option to choose whether to continue their participation in the model;
• Technical refinements and clarifications for certain payment, reconciliation, and quality provisions; and
• Change to increase the pool of eligible clinicians that qualify as affiliated practitioners under the Advanced Alternative Payment Model (APM) track.

An interim final rule with comment period is also being issued in conjunction with the final rule in order to address the need for a policy to provide some flexibility in the determination of episode costs for providers located in areas impacted by extreme and uncontrollable circumstances.

Comments will be accepted on the interim final rule with comment period until January 30, 2018. The final and interim final regulations become effective on January 1, 2018.