Medicare accountable care organizations (ACOs) are likely to face an imminent overhaul, according to former leaders of the program. Nancy-Ann DeParle, partner with Consonance Capital and formerly acting administrator of the predecessor agency to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) before serving as an Obama White House senior healthcare adviser, said CMS is…
If any vignette defines the provider experience in a Medicare accountable care organization (ACO), it is probably the anxious waiting, digesting, and analyzing of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) quarterly reports of ACO performance against its benchmark. In offices across the United States, ACO executive directors and analytics teams pore over tables…
Reading through our past coverage of the Medicare accountable care organization (ACO) program can produce a lot of confusion—like these two seemingly conflicting headlines: Medicare ACOs – The Enrollment & The Savings Are Increasing ACOs Shared Savings Raised Federal Costs By $384 Million Between 2013 & 2016 The first headline is related to recently released…
A huge chunk of organizations plan to leave the Medicare Shared Savings Program if they’re forced to take on financial risk, which could slow the government’s transition to value-based care. And it remains unclear whether the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which oversees the program, will make any sought-after changes. A recent letter from the agency, obtained by…
Most accountable care organizations say they will disband if the CMS forces them to take on financial risk next year. ACOs that started in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) Track 1 in either 2012 and 2013 are supposed to move to a risk-based model by their third contract periods which begin next year, according…
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…
Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) accountable care organizations (ACOs) have shifted their spending to physician services and away from inpatient and skilled nursing facility care, according to a recent study in the American Journal of Accountable Care. The analysis of within-ACO changes between the program’s first performance year in 2013 and the most recent complete…
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…
Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are provider-based networks which utilize data analytics and population health management strategies to increase efficiency, improve patient outcomes, and reduce healthcare costs. Originally established in 2012 as a Medicare payment model, the ACO is now also seen in private payer settings across the healthcare continuum. Full Article
For organizations that have not participated in programs like the Medicare Shared Savings Program, the longer they wait and do not build up experience, the harder it gets to be successful in the more advanced risk-based programs,” says Elizabeth Johnson, MD, MS, president and CEO of MaineHealth Accountable Care Organization. Full Article