WASHINGTON – The Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC) this week called on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to maintain progress on its efforts to drive the shift to value, while empowering beneficiaries through the support of reliable access to primary care.
Two population health management initiatives that focus on increasing the use of primary care providers have reaped significant results for patients, says CMS Deputy Administrator and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Patrick Conway. The Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) and Multi-payer Advanced Primary Care Practice (MAPCP) Demonstration have reduced hospital admissions by 2 percent, cut emergency department use by 3 percent, and saved approximately $4.2 million, according to a report and blog post detailing the results.
Three more accountable care organizations dropped out of Medicare's Pioneer program, which was designed to test the payment and delivery model with a small group of elite providers deemed best prepared to handle the operational demands and financial risks.
The Franciscan Alliance, Genesys PHO and Renaissance Health Network have exited the program, which is now in its third year. In August, Sharp HealthCare, San Diego, announced its decision to pull out after determining “the model was financially detrimental” despite the ACO's performance managing quality and healthcare use.
The CMS for the first time publicly released individual performance data for Medicare accountable care organizations on 33 measures of healthcare quality.
The results for 220 of the participants (PDF) in the Medicare Shared Savings Program reveal how ACOs performed on measures (PDF) of patient experience and preventive care and disease management for some of the leading causes of death among U.S. elderly, including heart disease, cancer and diabetes.
