News: ACOs saved Medicare $740 million in 2018, CMS says

Despite critics claims that Medicare accountable care organizations’ (ACO) savings are “modest” at best, CMS said the programs resulted in nearly $740 million in net 2018 savings, up from $314 million the previous year, in a report released last week. Policy experts said the savings are evidence of ACOs’ potential for long-term success, MedPage Today reported.

In 2018, ACOs in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) cared for more than 10.1 million beneficiaries and had an average quality score of almost 93%. ACOs that joined the program in 2016 or 2017 improved their quality measure performance by an average of 27% in 2018, MedPage Today reported.

“These numbers put to rest any notion that ACO savings are ‘modest’ and illustrate the strong performance of the leading Medicare alternative payment model,” wrote Clif Gaus, ScD, president and CEO of the National Association of ACOs (NAACOS) in a press release. “Given time, we know ACOs save money and provide benefit for patients and taxpayers.”

Despite huge cost savings and improved quality, a NAACOS report released last month found discovered a decline in new ACO participants. It stated  and that 40% of the 2013 ACOs with expiring contracts opted not to continue in the program. The report cited the a new CMS rule, “Pathways to Success,” that pushes new ACOs to take on financial risk quicker, according to MedPage Today.

The goal of forcing newer ACOs to take on more financial risk was to hopefully increase the savings capacity of the program as a whole (underperforming participants would have their reimbursement cut, which would in turn provide the incentive payment for overperforming participants). Looking at the new numbers from CMS, however, the change may not have been needed in order to see substantial savings, Gaus said.

“[The data] prove the Shared Savings Program was doing very well begfore last year’s changes,” he said. “We should work to find ways to encourage ACO participation, which as evidenced by these results helps improve our healthcare system and the future of Medicare.”

Editor’s note: To read the full report from CMS, click here. To read the press release from the NAACOS, click here. To read the earlier report from the NAACOS, click here. To read MedPage Today’s coverage of this story, click here.