More accountable care organizations are taking on downside financial risk in the Medicare Shared Savings Program than ever before, with 37% in the program today participating in these arrangements. This is a notable increase in the number of downside-risk ACOs, according to an analysis from Avalere Health. By comparison, just 10% of ACOs assumed downside risk…
The CMS made a profit from the Medicare Shared Savings Program last year as more accountable care organizations moved to risk-based contracts and gained experience, new federal data show. About 60% of the 472 Medicare ACOs generated a total of $1.1 billion in savings in 2017, according to the CMS data set released Thursday. The…
For many years we have heard health care policymakers from both political parties opine about the need to move to a health care system that pays for the value of care delivered to patients, rather than the mere volume of services. While disagreements may arise on how we get to value, the need for this…
The CMS wants to eliminate zero and low-risk tracks for accountable care organizations to more quickly move them to downside risk. The agency announced Thursday that it is planning to overhaul the Medicare Shared Savings Program by scrapping Track 1 and Track 2 and will launch a Basic track that provides a smaller window for…
Dive Brief: Provider organizations are urging CMS to allow Medicare accountable care organizations (ACOs) to continue for three more years without taking on financial risk. Under the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP), ACOs that began in 2012 or 2013 face their third contract period in 2019 and will have to move from Track 1 to…
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…