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In late October, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that Downers Grove, Ill.-based Advocate Health Care, the largest health system in the state, and its affiliated Medicare accountable care organization (ACO), Advocate Physician Partners Accountable Care, Inc., realized $60.6 million worth of cost savings in 2016.
Ranking second in savings of 432 ACOs participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP), Advocate was among the highest in quality results while providing care to the largest group of Medicare beneficiaries, the organization’s officials attested at the time of the announcement.
Since Advocate’s ACO participation in the MSSP commenced in 2012, the health system has reduced the total cost of care for its 139,000 assigned beneficiaries. Indeed, as Advocate’s officials have attested, “The total cost of care for our Medicare population was less in 2016 than it was in 2013. We’re not just bending the cost curve; we’ve turned it downward.”