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By the end of 2018, 74 of Medicare’s accountable care organizations (ACOs) departed the program, according to new analyses.
The departures of 13 percent of Medicare ACOs left 487 remaining in the program in 2019, as identified in an analysis of recently released Medicare data by David Muhlestein, PhD, chief research officer at Leavitt Partners, and echoed by ACO advocates. In comparison, a total of 59 MSSP ACOs dropped out of the program in 2016 and 2017, according to research.
“We have observed that the number of terminations occurring during performance year 2018 is slightly higher than what we have observed in prior years,” said an official at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). “However, we note that 90 percent of eligible ACOs elected the six-month extension from January 1, 2019 to June 30, 2019.”