Statement on CMMI’s Emergency Triage, Treat and Transport (ET3) Model

By Blair Childs, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs, Premier

Curbing unnecessary emergency department (ED) use presents an opportunity to reduce costs and deliver patient care in the most appropriate setting. Instead of trying to solve these issues in the middle of an emergency, we believe it is best to address them further upstream in the care continuum.

A recently released Premier analysis revealed that more than 4.3 million ED visits, costing an estimated $8.3 billion, were potentially preventable. This suggests more effective primary care management is necessary.

Our work with more than 120 ACOs has shown that developing a patient-centric, cross-continuum care management model in partnership with primary care providers can prevent inappropriate ED visits and deliver high quality care. We encourage CMS to enable ACOs to partner with ambulance providers and local government to implement the aspects of this model within the ACO, allowing the ACO to be accountable for the full continuum of care. We encourage CMMI to continue to invest in models that align incentives across the care continuum to prevent avoidable and costly visits to the ED.