CMS has released the final rule governing its Medicare Shared Savings Program, adding a Track 3, and streamlining data sharing between the agency and Accountable Care Organizations.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid on Thursday evening released its final rule on the Medicare Shared Savings Program. The rule goes into effect August 3, 2015.
The voluntary program, introduced by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aims to spur participation in accountable care organizations. According to CMS, highlights of the final rule include:
- The addition of a Track 3, which offers ACOs higher rates of shared savings, the prospective assignment of beneficiaries, and the opportunity to use new care coordination tools;
- Streamlined data sharing between CMS and ACOs, enabling ACOs to more easily access data on their patients "in a secure way for quality improvement and care coordination"
- Refinement of the policies for resetting ACO benchmarks "to help ensure that the program continues to provide strong incentives for ACOs to improve patient care and generate cost savings"
The 592-page document was parsed Thursday night on social media sites including Twitter. Farzad Mostashari, MD, formerly National Coordinator for Health IT and now CEO of Aledade, a company that helps primary care physicians form ACOs, was critical of the final rule in the hours after it was released.
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"Accountable Care Organizations have shown early but exciting progress in improving quality of care, while providing more patient-centered care at a lower cost," said CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt in a media release accompanying the release of the final rule.
More than 400 ACOS serving 7 million beneficiaries are in operation. The Pioneer ACO model was approved for expansion last month, sooner than CMS had planned.
Pioneer ACOs Saved Medicare $118 Million in Year One
Thirty-three organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Medical Group Management Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges and the National Association of ACOs, in a joint letter sent to CMS in February, criticized the proposed changes in detail.