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On Wednesday, Aug 25, leaders at the Washington, D.C.-based NAACOS—the National Association of ACOs—trumpeted the progress of accountable care organizations in saving money for the Medicare program, one day after joining eleven fellow national healthcare associations in pleading with members of Congress to include legislation supporting alternative payment model acceleration in upcoming federal legislation.
On Wednesday, NAACOS leaders boasted of the value that has been documented by ACOs participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). They posted on the association’s website a press release that began thus: “Medicare’s largest alternative payment model produced its highest annual savings to date in 2020, while continuing to provide high-quality care, as shown by performance data released today by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The Medicare Shared Savings Program, the accountable care organization (ACO) model that served 10.6 million seniors in 2020, collectively saved Medicare $4.1 billion last year, and $1.9 billion after accounting for shared savings payments. Importantly, these ACOs also hit an average quality score of 97.8 percent and 60 ACOs earned a perfect score of 100. This is an improvement over the $2.6 billion and $1.2 billion in gross and net savings MSSP created in 2019, making 2020 the best year yet for ACOs,” NAACOS noted.