Our History
The PACES Center is the culmination of many years of efforts to bring transparency, clarity and value to healthcare.
2011
2012
2013
2015
2016
2018
2019/2020
2021
2022-2023
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The earliest version of what is now PACES was developed by a consortium that included Brandeis University, the Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute, and the AMA's PCPI under a contract from CMS to develop a prototype episode grouper for the Medicare program.
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CMS selected this prototype and funded its development under the name of the Episode Grouper for Medicare (EGM).
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Clinical societies, practicing clinicians, and academic medical experts provided expertise in the initial development of the episode definitions and grouping logic, and this input has continued periodically over the following years.
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The American College of Surgeons (ACS) recognized the value of the project and invested in the development of an Advanced Alternative Payment Model proposal based on the EGM/PACES grouper.
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The payment model was proposed to the Physician-focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC) and recommended for testing, but the recommendation was not acted upon by CMS, much like recommendations to PTAC regarding other models.
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CMS released the EGM into the public domain, paving the way for the PACES Center to continue its development with the goal of establishing a standard for episode definition.
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The PACES Center for Value in Healthcare Inc. was officially incorporated and the initial development and incubation period began.
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PACES Center began making some episode information publicly available and engaged with developers to test and refine the grouper, and validate its outputs.
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The PACES Center undertook a major effort to update and improve its episode definitions and, with the help of several data analytic partners, test them on large commercial, Medicare and Medicaid datasets.