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…
More Medicare beneficiaries will receive care from providers in Medicare Shared Savings Program accountable care organizations this year, but the number is still lower than it was in 2020, new data show. Nearly 1 in 5 Medicare enrollees will be treated by Shared Savings Program ACO providers this year, a slight increase from 2021 but lower…
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought social and racial inequity to the forefront of public health. In the United States, the pandemic has affected many communities, including racial and ethnic minorities as well as low-income populations, more severely than other groups. Negative health outcomes are more common among individuals within these groups, and social determinants of…
The top officials at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on Tuesday, Jan. 11, made a major public statement regarding the goal of moving the healthcare system towards health equity, and a major component of that statement focused on leveraging Medicare’s value-based programs, particularly those focused on accountable care organizations (ACOs) to…
As the Biden administration continues to move Medicare reimbursement from volume-based payment to payments based on value, officials are expanding those efforts to include providers who care for “traditional” Medicare patients and currently bill under a fee-for-service system. The new Direct Contracting program, a demonstration program that began under the Trump administration, allows “a broad…
The U.S. federal deficit is the highest it has ever been. Healthcare makes up the largest portion of that deficit and the COVID-19 pandemic continues to amplify the issue. Over the past few years, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has lead the charge towards value-based contracting, which “encourages providers to deliver the…
Health systems are planning to advance their risk-based payment strategies by taking on more upside or downside risk, professional capitation, or global capitation in Medicare Advantage lines of business in 2022, according to a recent survey. The executive survey conducted by the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) for the Guidehouse Center for Health Insights found that…