Home Health & Hospice Week

Accountable Care Organizations are popping up seemingly everywhere, as HHS announced 106 new ACOs on Jan. 10. More than 250 ACOs have been established since Congress passed the Affordable Care Act, reports the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

ACOs encompass physicians and other health care providers working together to provide higher-quality care to their patients, while ACOs share any savings with Medicare that they’ve created from streamlining patient care. CMS established 33 quality measures on care coordination, patient safety, preventive health services, improved care for at-risk populations, and patient and caregiver experiences, which ACOs must meet.

CMS estimates that the ACO initiative could save Medicare up to $940 million over the course of four years. Although many current ACOs are relatively small groups, serving fewer than 10,000 Medicare beneficiaries, larger provider groups can utilize the Pioneer ACO program that CMS launched last year.

Also, Advanced Payment Model ACOs are special groups comprised of rural or physician-based providers who need better access to capital to invest in staff, electronic health record systems or other infrastructure needed to boost care coordination. For more information on this ACO model, visit www.innovations.cms.gov/initiatives/ACO/Advance-Payment/index.html.

The next application period to participate in the Shared Savings Program will occur during summer 2013. For more information, go to www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-Fee-for-Service-Payment/sharedsavingsprogram/index.html?redirect=/sharedsavingsprogram/.