Pioneer ACOs show savings
Improvements in care quality also demonstrated
A year into the Pioneer ACOs program and participating organizations are already showing reductions in costs and improvements in care, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced Tuesday.
According to CMS, costs for the 669,000 beneficiaries in the 32 Pioneer ACOs grew less – 0.3 percent in 2012 – than costs for similar beneficiaries not in the program (0.8 percent).
[See also: CMS taps 32 health systems for Pioneer ACO program]
More than 40 percent (13 out of 32 pioneer ACOs) produced shared savings with CMS, generating a gross savings of $87.6 million in 2012 and saving nearly $33 million to the Medicare Trust Funds. Seven of the 32 that did not produce shared savings have notified CMS that they intend to apply to another ACO model.
Pioneer ACOs earned over $76 million by providing coordinated care, officials pointed out in the press release. Program savings were driven, in part, by reductions in hospital admissions and readmissions.
"These results show that successful Pioneer ACOs have reduced costs for Medicare and improved the quality of care for their patients," said CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner, in the CMS press statement.
However, some ACOs did report overall financial losses. Two of the 32 reported shared losses totaling approximately $4 million.
[See also: CMS names 27 to shared savings ACO program]
In terms of improving care quality, all 32 ACOs successfully reported on quality measures and achieved the maximum reporting rate for the first performance year, with all earning incentive payments for their reporting accomplishments. Overall, they also performed better than published rates in fee-for-service Medicare on clinical quality measures.
