The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has added 17 new participants to its Next Generation ACO (accountable care organization) program.
With the addition of the 17 new systems and the loss of three prior participants, the Next Generation ACO model now has 58 participants—14 of which are new with 44 renewing ACOs. The model now covers about two million patients, according to CMS.
Next Generation Model participants have the opportunity to take on higher levels of financial risk—up to 100 percent risk—than ACOs in other current initiatives. While they are at greater financial risk, they also have a greater opportunity to share in more of the model’s savings through better care coordination and care management, CMS has stated. The two-sided risk model announced 21 participants to start when it was unveiled in 2016.
In October, CMS released the results of how Next Gen ACOs did in year one of the program. The data showed that that 61 percent of program participants were able to earn shared savings in 2016, while the remaining ACOs generated losses outside a minimum loss rate and thus owed shared losses. All of the ACOs in this model scored 100 percent on quality across 33 measures they were graded on.
In related news, another federal ACO model—the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP)—will have 124 new ACO members in 2018, CMS recently announced. The new participants brings the total number of MSSP ACOs up to 561— 124 new members, 65 that renewed their agreements in 2018 and 372 that are continuing in the program but were not up for renewal.
“The interest and growth in participation in the Next Generation Model shows that ACOs are increasingly driving change and pushing healthcare delivery and payment reform forward in new and innovative ways. These ACOs are trailblazers and we congratulate them for their work,” Clif Gaus, president and CEO of NAACOS (the National Association of ACOs), said in a statement.
