Medicare ACOs Achieve Savings in First 1-2 Years

This new study focuses on the question of whether the implementation of Medicare ACOs has had an effect on spending and service utilization for both overall and for clinically vulnerable Medicare beneficiaries.

The study found that spending decreased by $34 per beneficiary per quarter after ACO contract implementation across the overall Medicare population and decreased by $114 in clinically vulnerable patients. In the overall cohort, hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits decreased by 1.3 and 3.0 events per 1000 beneficiaries per quarter, respectively, and hospitalizations and ED visits decreased in the clinically vulnerable cohort by 2.9 and 4.1 events per 1000 beneficiaries per quarter, respectively.

ACO News is a feature of the Medicaid Accountable Care Organization Resource Center, an online collection of tools designed to help Medicaid agencies develop and launch accountable care organizations.