The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) proposed streamlining Medicare alternative payment models (APMs), along with policy options for tackling pricey Part B drugs, in its June report to Congress Wednesday. In the June 2021 report, MedPAC called for reducing the number of Medicare APMs so that models running concurrently could work better together. The 2022…
April marked the 10-year anniversary of the start of the agreement period for the first Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (Shared Savings Program) – an ambitious program to reward health care providers for improving health care for people with Medicare. The program now includes 483 ACOs with over 525,000 participating…
Medicare Advantage plans may provide better access to care and lower healthcare spending for enrollees, compared to fee-for-service Medicare, according to a study from ATI Advisory conducted on behalf of Better Medicare Alliance (BMA). “Medicare Advantage continues to demonstrate that it offers important cost protections and value for Medicare Advantage beneficiaries,” said Allison Rizer, principal at ATI Advisory…
The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us it’s possible for the health care system to transform care delivery—and quickly. We saw vaccines come to market in record time, heightened cross-industry collaboration to track vaccine statuses, and virtual care use surge. Similarly, the pandemic demonstrated that value-based care delivery models, where payment is based on outcomes versus the…
Medicare Part C (Medicare Advantage) enrollment has grown more rapidly than fee-for-service Medicare Enrollment in the last decade, raising questions about changes in the characteristics of different enrollee populations for Medicare Part A only, Medicare Part A & B and Medicare Part C. Microsoft’s Precision Population Health Group partnered with CareJourney to advance understanding of…
On the heels of several years of declining or flat accountable care organization (ACO) growth in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP), 2022 only saw a modest increase in participation, with 483 ACOs partaking. The current numbers do not bode well in terms of meeting the Biden administration’s goal of having every traditional Medicare patient…
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced that 11 million patients with Medicare will be treated by Shared Savings Program Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) in 2022. According to a news release, the announcement came as part of the agency’s annual summary of the Medicare Shared Saving Program; Medicare’s national ACO program. “With…
For 10 years, the agency that runs Medicare has offered doctors and their practices extra money if they joined groups called Accountable Care Organizations and improved the quality of care they provided to older patients covered by traditional Medicare, while also focusing on the cost of their care. But a new study finds that those…
Are 66 new accountable care organizations (ACOs) in a year a sign of progress or a disappointing result? That depends on who you ask. CMS announced last week that 66 additional ACOs joined the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) for ACOs in 2022, bringing the total up to 483 ACOs. However, that number is only…
Accountable care organizations (ACOs) in the Medicare Shared Savings Program will care for more beneficiaries in 2022, making it the largest alternative payment model in Medicare despite lackluster ACO participation numbers this year, according to new program data from CMS. Over 11 million Medicare beneficiaries will be attributed to a provider practicing as part of…