Global and Professional Direct Contracting Model - Initial Observations from 2021 Financial Results

On November 23, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the 2021 financial and quality results for the CMS Innovation Center’s Global and Professional Direct Contracting (GPDC) model. 2021 marked the first year of the GPDC model – a model that was designed to test a new implementation of the total cost of care risk model for original Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries. Key features of the model included the introduction of partially capitated payments, as well as an option for providers to assume more financial risk and reward than is available under the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). Ultimately, 53 Direct Contracting Entities (DCEs) participated in the first year of the model, generating a total gross savings of $117 million, $47 million of which was paid to DCEs as shared savings. In this brief, we share our initial observations of the 2021 GPDC financial results