Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services: New Medicare Accountable Care Organizations

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced 100 additional Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) that will begin participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program beginning in January 2016:

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Another 147 ACOs will be renewing their participation in the Medicare Shared Savings Program, for a total of 434 ACOs participating in the program:

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However, only 22 of these 434 Medicare Shared Savings Program ACOs are in Track 2, or the newly created Track 3 based on regulations finalized in June 2015, both which have downside risk-sharing with CMS.

CMS also announced that 21 organizations will begin implementing the Next Generation ACO model, which includes a prospectively (rather than retrospectively) set benchmark, allows beneficiaries to choose to be aligned to the ACO, and tests beneficiary incentives for seeking care at Next Generation ACO providers, including increased availability of telehealth and care coordination services.  All the Next Generation ACOs have risk-sharing with CMS. A list and map of the 21 Next Generation ACOs are available on the CMS website.

Another 22 organizations continue to participate in either the Pioneer ACO model or the Comprehensive End State Renal Disease Care ACO model, bringing the total number of federally-supported ACOs to 477, serving nearly 8.9 million beneficiaries.