From CMS
What’s an ACO?
Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers, who come together voluntarily to give coordinated high quality care to their Medicare patients.
The goal of coordinated care is to ensure that patients, especially the chronically ill, get the right care at the right time, while avoiding unnecessary duplication of services and preventing medical errors.
When an ACO succeeds both in both delivering high-quality care and spending health care dollars more wisely, it will share in the savings it achieves for the Medicare program.
Medicare offers several ACO programs:
•Medicare Shared Savings Program—a program that helps a Medicare fee-for-service program providers become an ACO. Apply Now.
•Advance Payment ACO Model—a supplementary incentive program for selected participants in the Shared Savings Program.
•Pioneer ACO Model—a program designed for early adopters of coordinated care. No longer accepting applications.
Organizations across the country have already transformed the way they deliver care, in ways similar to the ACOs that Medicare supports.
Organizations across the country have already transformed the way they deliver care, in ways similar to the ACOs that Medicare supports.
