1
Which patients are likely to fall into the ASM low back pain cohort?
Review EHR panels, diagnoses, procedures, Medicare attribution signals, and episode history before the reporting year starts.
PainOS
ASM readiness resource
For pain practices preparing for ASM
Six readiness questions every pain practice should answer before CMS ASM begins.
The Ambulatory Specialty Model moves low back pain care toward accountable, episode-based performance. The near-term opportunity is practical: identify the right patients, organize the workflow, document consistently, and track outcomes without burying clinicians in manual work.
Start With This Question
Can your practice find, stratify, follow, and report on every likely ASM low back pain episode?
If the answer is partly manual, ASM readiness becomes an operating problem, not just a billing or compliance problem. The practices that prepare early will know which patients are attributed, which workflows are missing, and which outcomes need to be captured.
Jan 2027ASM performance period begins
LBPFirst specialty episode focus
20+Medicare episodes can create exposure
+/-9%Potential payment adjustment by 2031
Questions To Use With Clinical And Administrative Teams
2
How will the practice stratify low, moderate, and high-risk patients?
Use severity, function, opioid risk, utilization, behavioral health flags, and escalation risk to guide the care pathway.
3
Which data elements must be captured at the visit and between visits?
Define the minimum documentation set for pain, function, treatment plan, follow-up, outcomes, and audit-ready exports.
4
Which patients can be grouped into shared care pathways?
Cluster patients by diagnosis, risk, readiness, and treatment plan so group visits and follow-up can be operationalized.
5
What happens after the patient leaves the clinic?
Plan between-visit monitoring, app engagement, reminders, symptom tracking, and escalation protocols.
6
How will leadership know whether ASM is working?
Track readiness, outcomes, utilization, adherence, missing data, and revenue exposure in a format leaders can review weekly.
A Practical ASM Launch Workflow
1. Panel ReviewFind likely ASM-eligible low back pain patients.
2. Risk StratificationAssign severity and utilization risk.
3. Pathway AssignmentRoute patients to care plans or group visits.
4. Follow-UpMonitor symptoms, function, and adherence.
5. ReportingProduce readiness, outcome, and audit exports.
Where Software Helps
PainOS is being built as an ASM operating layer for pain practices: patient identification, risk stratification, group-visit clustering, between-visit follow-up, and compliance-grade reporting in one workflow.
What To Ask For In A Demo
A live ASM readiness score
EHR/panel review workflow
Risk and severity logic
Patient app follow-up
Group visit clustering
CMS-ready data export