Accountable care organizations (ACOs) accounted for savings of more than $411 million in 2014, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
However, of the 20 Pioneer ACO programs and the 333 ACOs participating in the Medicare shared savings program, 97 qualified for shared savings payments of more than $422 million by meeting quality standards and their saving threshold, according to a report from the CMS.
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In addition to savings, provider groups also reported improvement on certain quality metrics. For those in the Pioneer ACO program, groups demonstrated improvement on 28 of 33 quality measures and experienced a 3.6% improvement across all quality measures, compared with the previous year. Top areas of improvement were medication reconciliation, screening for clinical depression and follow-up plan, and qualification for electronic health record incentive payments.
For ACOs participating in the Medicare Shared Savings program, improvement was shown in 27 of 33 quality measures, including patients’ ratings of clinicians’ communication, patients’ ratings of their doctors, screening for tobacco use and cessation, screening for high blood pressure, and EHR use.
“Accountable care organizations as a group are on the path toward transforming how care is provided,” CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt said in a statement. “Many of these ACOs are demonstrating that they can deliver a higher level of coordinated care that leads to healthier people and smarter spending.”