Section 425.611 - Adjustments to Shared Savings Program calculations to address the COVID-19 pandemic(a)General. This section describes adjustments CMS makes to Shared Savings Program calculations to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.(b)Episodes of care for treatment of COVID-19.(1) CMS identifies an episode of care for treatment of COVID-19 based on either of the following:(i) Discharges for inpatient services eligible for the 20 percent adjustment under section 1886(d)(4)(C) of the Act.(ii) Discharges for acute care inpatient services for treatment of COVID-19 from facilities that are not paid under the inpatient prospective payment system, such as CAHs, when the date of discharge occurs within the Public Health Emergency as defined in § 400.200 of this chapter.(2) CMS defines the episode of care as starting in the month in which the inpatient stay begins as identified by the admission date, all months during the inpatient stay, and the month following the end of the inpatient stay as indicated by the discharge date.(c)Applicability of adjustments. Notwithstanding any other provision in this part, CMS adjusts the following Shared Savings Program calculations to exclude all Parts A and B fee-for-service payment amounts for a beneficiary's episode of care for treatment of COVID-19 as described in paragraph (b) of this section:(1) Calculation of Medicare Parts A and B fee-for-service expenditures for an ACO's assigned beneficiaries for all purposes including the following: Establishing, adjusting, updating, and resetting the ACO's historical benchmark and determining performance year expenditures.(2) Calculation of fee-for-service expenditures for assignable beneficiaries as used in determining county-level fee-for-service expenditures and national Medicare fee-for-service expenditures, including the following calculations: (i) Determining average county fee-for-service expenditures based on expenditures for the assignable population of beneficiaries in each county in the ACO's regional service area according to §§ 425.601(c) , 425.603(e) , and 425.654(a) for purposes of calculating the ACO's regional fee-for-service expenditures.(ii) Determining the 99th percentile of national Medicare fee-for-service expenditures for assignable beneficiaries for purposes of the following: (A) Truncating assigned beneficiary expenditures used in calculating benchmark expenditures under §§ 425.601(a)(4) , 425.602(a)(4) , 425.603(c)(4) , and 425.652(a)(4) , and performance year expenditures under §§ 425.604(a)(4) , 425.605(a)(3) , 425.606(a)(4) , and 425.610(a)(4) .(B) Truncating expenditures for assignable beneficiaries in each county for purposes of determining county fee-for-service expenditures according to §§ 425.601(c)(3) , 425.603(e)(3) , and 425.654(a)(3) .(iii) Determining national per capita expenditures for Parts A and B services under the original Medicare fee-for-service program for assignable beneficiaries for purposes of capping the regional adjustment to the ACO's historical benchmark according to §§ 425.601(a)(8)(ii)(C) and 425.656(c)(3) , and capping the prior savings adjustment according to § 425.658(c)(1)(ii) .(iv) Determining the flat dollar equivalent of the projected absolute amount of growth in national per capita expenditures for Parts A and B services under the original Medicare fee-for-service program for assignable beneficiaries, for purposes of updating the ACO's historical benchmark according to § 425.602(b)(2) .(v) Determining national growth rates that are used as part of the blended growth rates used to trend forward BY1 and BY2 expenditures to BY3 according to §§ 425.601(a)(5)(ii) and 425.652(a)(5)(ii) and as part of the blended growth rates used to trend the benchmark and update the benchmark according to §§ 425.601(b)(2) and 425.652(b)(2)(i) .(3) Calculation of Medicare Parts A and B fee-for-service revenue of ACO participants for purposes of calculating the ACO's loss recoupment limit under the BASIC track as specified in § 425.605(d) .(4) Calculation of total Medicare Parts A and B fee-for-service revenue of ACO participants and total Medicare Parts A and B fee-for-service expenditures for the ACO's assigned beneficiaries for purposes of identifying whether an ACO is a high revenue ACO or low revenue ACO, as defined under § 425.20 , determining an ACO's eligibility for participation options according to § 425.600(d) , and determining an ACO's eligibility to receive advance investment payments according to § 425.630 .(5) Calculation or recalculation of the amount of the ACO's repayment mechanism arrangement according to § 425.204(f)(4) .85 FR 27625, May 8, 2020, as amended at 85 FR 85044, Dec. 28, 2020; 87 FR 70241, Nov. 18, 2022; 88 FR 79548, Nov. 16, 2023 85 FR 27625, 5/8/2020; 85 FR 85044, 1/1/2021; 87 FR 70241, 1/1/2023; 88 FR 79548, 1/1/2024