Better Health – NOW Letter Pairs Praise for ACO PC Flex & Suggested Improvements
Applications opened for ACOs and their primary care partners to join the new ACO Primary Care Flex, but PCC and its Better Health – NOW (BHN) partners continue to urge CMS to strengthen the model during implementation.
The CMS published for the first time the quality and financial performance for individual Pioneer accountable care organizations, a small, select group enlisted for Medicare's most ambitious test of the payment model. First year financial results show health spending slowed as much as 7% (PDF) among some ACOs and accelerated as much as 5% for others. In the second year, health spending slowed as much as 5.4% among those that reduced patients' medical bills and accelerated as much as 5.6% where costs escalated.
