Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), which offer a variety of in-home services, helped Medicare save $1.66 billion last year through the Medicare Shared Savings Program. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said it was the fifth consecutive year the program generated overall savings and high-quality performance results.
“The Medicare Shared Savings Program demonstrates how a coordinated care approach can improve quality and outcomes for people with Medicare while also reducing costs for the entire health system,” CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said in a statement. “Accountable Care Organizations are a true Affordable Care Act success story, and it is inspiring to see the results year after year. The Biden-Harris Administration and CMS are committed to a health care system that delivers high-quality affordable, equitable, person-centered care — and a Medicare program that can deliver just that.”
Shared Savings Program ACOs are groups of doctors, hospitals and other healthcare providers, such as home health agencies, that collaborate to provide care to Medicare enrollees in an effort to avoid unnecessary services and keep seniors out of the hospital.
ACOs are increasingly delivering services to the home. Earlier this year, the American Journal of Managed Care polled 151 ACOs and found 25% had formal home-based care programs, 25% offered occasional home visits and 17% were actively developing home-based programs. Some home-based care is not reimbursed by Medicare, prompting some ACOs to pause expansion until CMS covers it.
CMS has proposed changes to the Shared Savings Program that would expand it in rural areas and underserved communities.
The Shared Savings Program has become one of the largest value-based care programs nationwide. Earlier this year, CMS estimated more than 525,000 clinicians participated in the program and provided care to an estimated 11 million Medicare beneficiaries.
