New Investment Help Coming to Medicare ACOs
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is increasing resources to Medicare accountable care organizations.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is increasing resources to Medicare accountable care organizations.
A new ACO Investment Model program at CMS will provide up to $114 million in upfront investments to up to 75 Shared Savings ACOs, according to the agency. The initiative comes shortly after a survey of 62 ACOs of various types across the nation by eHealth Initiative and Premier Inc. found they are facing huge burdens.
All responding ACOs reported having difficulty with data interoperability, 83 percent were struggling with integrating analytics into workflows, and more than 90 percent said the cost and return on investments for information technologies is a crippling concern.
The upfront investments from CMS will go toward infrastructure and redesigning of care processes, with CMS recovering the payments through an offset of an ACOs earned shared savings.
Eligible ACOs are those joining the Shared Savings program in 2012, 2013 and 2014, as well as new ACOs joining in 2016. Applications for upfront investments are due by Dec. 1, 2014 for Shared Savings ACOs that started in 2012 or 2013. Applications for ACOs starting in 2014 or 2016 will be available in the summer of 2015, according to CMS. More information is available here.
A new ACO Investment Model program at CMS will provide up to $114 million in upfront investments to up to 75 Shared Savings ACOs, according to the agency. The initiative comes shortly after a survey of 62 ACOs of various types across the nation by eHealth Initiative and Premier Inc. found they are facing huge burdens.
All responding ACOs reported having difficulty with data interoperability, 83 percent were struggling with integrating analytics into workflows, and more than 90 percent said the cost and return on investments for information technologies is a crippling concern.
The upfront investments from CMS will go toward infrastructure and redesigning of care processes, with CMS recovering the payments through an offset of an ACOs earned shared savings.
Eligible ACOs are those joining the Shared Savings program in 2012, 2013 and 2014, as well as new ACOs joining in 2016. Applications for upfront investments are due by Dec. 1, 2014 for Shared Savings ACOs that started in 2012 or 2013. Applications for ACOs starting in 2014 or 2016 will be available in the summer of 2015, according to CMS. More information is available here.