Government Healthcare Policy, Business and Technology

CMS Announces $284 Million Saved in Pioneer ACO Program After Two Years

Healthcare Informatics: After two years in existence, the Pioneer Accountable Care Organization (ACO) program has saved the Medicare program $384 million in total, or $300 per Medicare beneficiary per year. Participating providers saved Medicare $279.7 million in 2012 and $104.5 million in 2013. That amount of savings was announced on the website of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and came via an independent evaluation report released May 4 by HHS. What’s more, as the announcement noted, the independent Office of the Actuary in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has certified that the Pioneer ACO program is model “is the first to meet expansion to a larger population of Medicare beneficiaries.”

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