CMS released its 2014 quality and financial performance results last week, showing that Medicare Accountable Care Organizations are generating savings and measurably improving care for Medicare beneficiaries.
“These results show that accountable care organizations as a group are on the path towards transforming how care is provided," announced CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt in a prepared 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.”
Among these ACOs are those of Collaborative Health Systems (CHS), a division of Universal American (UA), which partnered with primary care physicians to operate 23 ACOs in 2014--more than any other organization in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (ASSP). Its ACOs include 4,300 providers serving 270,000 Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries.
CHS says that nine of its ACOs earned a combined $27 million in shared savings as part of the MSSP for 2014. That’s triple the number of ACOs that CHS had qualify for shared savings in the first program year, when they earned a combined $20 million in shared savings.
Another eight CHS ACOs achieved 2014 savings but did not exceed the Minimum Savings Rate (MSR), and, of those, four missed the MSR mark by less than 1%.
CHS is proud to note that in total, those 17 ACOs generated $80 million in savings for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
Richard A. Barasch, CEO of Universal American, parent company of CHS, credits the efforts of their physician partners. He noted the difficulty providers face in changing the way they manage their practices and monitor quality scores and other activities.
“This is hard work and it doesn’t happen overnight,” he told Healthcare Dive.
Barasch said while they are happy about the savings, “what we’re really encouraged by is how much our quality scores have improved.”
He notes that quality scores improved for all CHS ACOs, indicating improved healthcare management, especially for their chronically ill patients.
Among those quality improvements in 2014: hospitalizations decreased by an average of 11% for beneficiaries with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and by 8% for beneficiaries with congestive heart failure.
In addition, beneficiaries with type 1 or type 2 diabetes had a 10% improvement in their quality score for hemoglobin levels, indicating improved regulation of blood sugar levels.
Barasch says that while their savings and improvement aspirations are always high, they are pleased with their 2014 performance and consider it an encouraging data point along the way toward further future improvements.
“We’re in this for the long haul,” he said. “This is only the second year of a longer term program, and this is going to take time and take work.”
As for how their ACOs’ performance compared to others, Barasch says they will be evaluating that as all the final stats are released. From the indicators available, he’s guessing their savings is comparatively high.