Affordable Care Act Gives Providers New Options to Better Coordinate Healthcare - New Accountable Care Organization Models Will Improve Patient Care; Could Save Medicare Up to $430 Million
On Tue May 17, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced three Affordable Care Act initiatives designed to help put doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers on the path to becoming Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and improve healthcare for Americans with Medicare. First, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation is requesting applications for a new Pioneer ACO Model<http://innovations.cms.gov/areas-of-focus/seamless-and-coordinated-care-models/pioneer-aco/>, which provides a faster path for mature ACOs that have already begun coordinating care for patients and are ready to move forward. Second, the Innovation Center is seeking comment on the idea of an Advance Payment Initiative<http://innovations.cms.gov/areas-of-focus/seamless-and-coordinated-care-models/advance-payment/> that gives certain ACOs participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program access to their shared savings up front, helping them make the infrastructure and staff investments crucial to successfully coordinating and improving care for patients. Finally, providers interested in learning more about how to coordinate patient care through ACOs can attend free new Accelerated Development Learning Sessions<https://acoregister.rti.org/>. The Accelerated Development Learning Sessions will teach providers interested in becoming ACOs what steps they can take to improve care delivery and how to develop an action plan for moving toward providing better coordinated care. Together with the Medicare Shared Savings Program<http://www.cms.gov/sharedsavingsprogram/>, the initiatives announced today give providers a broad range of options and support that reflect the varying needs of providers in embarking on delivery system reforms. CMS issued a proposed rule to implement the Medicare Shared Savings Program in March 2011 and is continuing to encourage and accept comments from providers and the public that will help strengthen the final rule. These initiatives are part of a broader effort by the Obama Administration, made possible by the Affordable Care Act, to improve care and lower costs. For more information about all of these initiatives, visit the Innovation Center website<http://www.innovations.cms.gov/>. To read the full CMS press release (issued Tue May 17), visit http://www.CMS.gov/apps/media/press/release.asp?counter=3957<http://www.cms.gov/apps/media/press/release.asp?counter=3957>. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: If you have problems accessing any hyperlink in this message, please copy and paste the URL into your Internet browser. If you know someone who would like to subscribe to a Medicare Fee-For-Service (FFS) provider listserv, go to (http://www.cms.gov/prospmedicarefeesvcpmtgen/downloads/Provider_Listservs.pdf). If you would like to unsubscribe from a specific provider listserv, please go to (https://list.nih.gov/cgi-bin/wa.exe?INDEX) to unsubscribe or to leave the appropriate listserv. Please DO NOT respond to this email. This email is a service of CMS and routed through an electronic mail server to communicate Medicare policy and operational changes and/or updates. Responses to this email are not routed to CMS personnel. Inquiries may be sent by going to (http://www.cms.gov/ContactCMS). Thank you.
