The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced two new incentives to encourage providers to work together through accountable care organizations (ACOs) when caring for Medicare beneficiaries.
The two initiatives launched include the Medicare Shared Savings program and the Advance Payment model:
- The Medicare Shared Savings program will provide incentives for participating healthcare providers who agree to work together and become accountable for coordinating care for patients. Providers who band together through this model and who meet certain quality standards based on measures such as patient outcomes and care coordination can share in savings they achieve for the Medicare program. The higher the quality of care providers deliver, the more shared savings the providers may keep.
- The Advance Payment model will provide additional support to physician-owned and rural providers participating in the Medicare Shared Savings program who also would benefit from additional start-up resources to build the necessary infrastructure, such as new staff or IT systems. The advanced payments would be recovered from any future shared savings achieved by the ACO.
Both the Shared Savings program and Advance Payment model create incentives for healthcare providers to work together to treat an individual patient across care settings -- including doctors' offices, hospitals, and long-term care facilities, HHS said.
