Additional Accountable Care Organizations Added to Serve Medicare Patients

Deborah Bayliss | As of Tuesday, December 31, 2013

ACOs are groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers, who come together voluntarily to give coordinated, care to the Medicare patients they serve. In addition to the 360 ACOs that formed since the ACA's passage and currently serving over 5.3 million Americans with Medicare, 123 more ACOs have formed providing approximately 1.5 million more Medicare beneficiaries with access to high-quality coordinated care across the United States.
ACOs are groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers, who come together voluntarily to give coordinated, care to the Medicare patients they serve. In addition to the 360 ACOs that formed since the ACA's passage and currently serving over 5.3 million Americans with Medicare, 123 more ACOs have formed providing approximately 1.5 million more Medicare beneficiaries with access to high-quality coordinated care across the United States.

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"Accountable Care Organizations are delivering higher-quality care to Medicare beneficiaries and are using Medicare dollars more efficiently." - Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

As the health care world adjusts to changes in laws due to the passage of the new Affordable Care Act, Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are growing in number.

ACOs are groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers, who come together voluntarily to give coordinated, care to the Medicare patients they serve.

“Accountable Care Organizations are delivering higher-quality care to Medicare beneficiaries and are using Medicare dollars more efficiently,” said U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius. “This is a great example of the Affordable Care Act rewarding hospitals and doctors that work together to help our beneficiaries get the best possible care.”

In addition to the 360 ACOs that formed since the ACA’s passage and currently serving over 5.3 million Americans with Medicare, 123 more ACOs have formed providing approximately 1.5 million more Medicare beneficiaries with access to high-quality coordinated care across the United States.

Beneficiaries seeking health care providers in ACOs have the freedom to choose doctors inside or outside of the ACO.

ACOs share with Medicare any savings generated from lowering the growth in health care costs when they meet standards for high quality care.

ACOs must meet quality standards to ensure that savings are achieved through improving care coordination and providing care that is appropriate, safe, and timely.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) evaluates ACO quality performance using 33 quality measures on patient and caregiver experience of care, care coordination and patient safety, appropriate use of preventive health services, and improved care for at-risk populations.

The new ACOs include a diverse cross-section of health care providers across the country, including providers delivering care in underserved areas.

More than half of ACOs are physician-led organizations that serve fewer than 10,000 beneficiaries.

Approximately one in five ACOs include community health centers, rural health clinics, and critical access hospitals that serve low-income and rural communities.

Affordable Care Act provisions have a substantial effect on reducing the growth rate of Medicare spending.

Growth in Medicare spending per beneficiary hit historic lows during the 2010-2012, and continued into 2013, according to the U.S. Department of Health.

Projections by both the Office of the Actuary at CMS and the Congressional Budget Office estimate that Medicare spending per beneficiary will grow at approximately the rate of growth of the economy for the next decade, breaking a decades-old pattern of spending growth outstripping economic growth.

The next application period for organizations interested in participating in the Shared Savings Program beginning Jan. 2015 will be in summer 2014.

For more information and a list of new ACOs, please visit www.cms.gov.

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