Another 89 ACOs join federal cost-sharing programs

Eighty-nine new accountable care organizations (ACOs) serving 1.2 million Medicare patients in 40 states and Washington, D.C. officially entered into agreements with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as of July 1.

The new group joins 65 other healthcare organizations participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program and similar cost-sharing initiatives, bringing the total number of ACOs to 154 and the total number of patients served by ACOs to more than 2.4 million, according to a July 9 CMS statement.

Accountable care organizations (ACOs) now stretch across 45 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., according to a white paper from Leavitt Partners. The 221 identified ACOs represent a 38 percent increase compared with those identified just six months ago.

A June whitepaper from Leavitt Partners, “Growth and Dispersion of Accountable Care Organizations,” reported 221 ACOs across 45 states and Washington, D.C. That figure represents a 38 percent increase compared with the ACOs identified six months earlier. The paper also said that ACO activity in the private sector outnumbers the government sector by a factor of four to one, while the majority of ACOs are found in larger metropolitan regions.