New Affordable Care Act program to Improve Care, Control Medicare Costs, Off to a Strong Start Over 1.1 Million Beneficiaries Now Served by Accountable Care Organizations
A new program that will help physicians, hospitals, and other health care providers work together to improve care for people with Medicare is off to a strong start. Under the new Medicare Shared Savings Program (Shared Savings Program), 27 Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) have entered into agreements with CMS, taking responsibility for the quality of care furnished to people with Medicare in return for the opportunity to share in savings realized through improved care. The Shared Savings Program and other initiatives related to Accountable Care Organizations are made possible by the Affordable Care Act, the health care law of 2010. Participation in an ACO is purely voluntary for providers and beneficiaries and people with Medicare retain their current ability to seek treatment from any provider they wish. The first 27 Shared Savings Program ACOs will serve an estimated 375,000 beneficiaries in 18 States. This brings the total number of organizations participating in Medicare shared savings initiatives on Sun Apr 1 to 65, including the 32 Pioneer Model ACOs that were announced last December, and six Physician Group Practice Transition Demonstration organizations that started in January, 2011. In all, as of Sun Apr 1, more than 1.1 million beneficiaries are receiving care from providers participating in Medicare shared savings initiatives. CMS also announced today that five ACOs are participating in the Advance Payment ACO Model beginning Sun Apr 1. This model will provide advance payment of expected shared savings to rural and physician-based ACOs participating in the Shared Savings Program that would benefit from additional start-up resources. These resources will help build the necessary care coordination infrastructure necessary to improve patient outcomes and reduce costs, such as new staff or information technology systems. CMS is reviewing more than 50 applications for Advance Payments that start in July. For more information on the Advanced Payment ACO Model, including the participating ACOs, visit http://innovations.CMS.gov/initiatives/ACO/Advance-Payment/. The full text of this excerpted CMS press release (issued Tue Apr 10) can be found at http://www.CMS.gov/apps/media/press/release.asp?Counter=4333, and a media fact sheet can be found at http://www.CMS.gov/apps/media/press/factsheet.asp?Counter=4334. ________________________________ Note: If you have problems accessing any hyperlink in this message, please copy and paste the URL into your Internet browser. If you know someone who would like to subscribe to a Medicare Fee-For-Service (FFS) provider listserv, go to (http://www.cms.gov/prospmedicarefeesvcpmtgen/downloads/Provider_Listservs.pdf). If you would like to unsubscribe from a specific provider listserv, please go to (https://list.nih.gov/cgi-bin/wa.exe?INDEX) to unsubscribe or to leave the appropriate listserv. Please DO NOT respond to this email. This email is a service of CMS and routed through an electronic mail server to communicate Medicare policy and operational changes and/or updates. Responses to this email are not routed to CMS personnel. Inquiries may be sent by going to (http://www.cms.gov/ContactCMS). Thank you.
