The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released financial results for select Medicare Accountable Care Organization (ACO) initiatives, savings from both the Medicare ACOs and Pioneer ACOs totaled more than $380 million in savings in their first 12 months, the agency said.
According to the data released by CMS, just under half (54 out of 114) of the ACOs that started program operations in 2012 already had lower expenditures than had been projected. Of those ACOs, 29 generated shared savings totaling more than $126 million. The ACOs also generated a total of $128 million in net savings for the Medicare Trust Funds. The Pioneer ACOs generated gross savings of $147 million in their first year, CMS reported.
It also said participating organizations demonstrated high quality of care on a broad range of chronic disease and preventive care measures. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) say the interim results are "currently within the range originally projected for the program’s first year."
“Our experience has shown that ACOs can increase quality while lowering costs. As a result of the programs we’ve initiated, our patients have experienced better access to their primary care physician, higher quality measures, and fewer trips to the hospital,” stated Kenneth W. Wilkins, M.D., President of Coastal Carolina Health Care, which is a CMS designated Pioneer ACO. “We look forward to making continued progress and seeing future results, and we are grateful to CMS whose advance funding made these initiatives possible.”
In addition, CMS announced 232 acute care hospitals, skilled nursing homes, physician group practices, long-term care hospitals, and home health agencies have entered into agreements to participate in the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement initiative. Those participants can be found here.
