Pioneer ACOs year 1: More improved quality than costs

More Pioneer accountable care organizations (ACOs) improved quality than lowered costs, according to first-year results.

All 32 ACOs improved patient care and patient satisfaction against benchmarks, according to results but only 13 achieved enough savings that they qualified to share some of that money. Two spent more on the assigned beneficiaries than traditional Medicare fee-for-service and will owe the government $4 million.

Phoenix-based Banner Health Network (BHN) is one Pioneer ACO that will forge ahead after experiencing impressive results after the first year.

"Our ability to deliver shared savings, in excess of $13 million, has been the result of more coordinated care by our providers, advanced population health technology and surrounding our most vulnerable and chronically ill beneficiaries with supportive case management," Tricia Nguyen, BHN CMO, said in a release.

In the first year BHN also demonstrated an ability to reduce hospital admissions, hospital length of stay and the need for hospital readmissions by supporting beneficiaries when they are most at risk and in need of care and advocacy. BHN was a top performer in terms of shared savings compared to other Pioneer organizations nationally.

"Through our experience, we believe the value-based Pioneer ACO model has merit, and that it has the potential to diminish the predominance of fee-for-service plans in government and private sectors," said Chuck Lehn, CEO for Banner Health Network. "It is the best solution at this time for creating sustainability for the Medicare program, and could be the basis for historic change in the U.S. healthcare industry."

Banner Health Network will proceed with the Pioneer ACO program in Performance Year 2 (calendar year 2013) and has begun recruiting additional physicians for Performance Year 3 (calendar year 2014).

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), that operates the Pioneer program, reported that the results from the Pioneers overall were promising. "These results show that Pioneer ACOs have been successful in reducing costs for Medicare, improving the quality of care for their patients, and that incentives to align payment with quality can work."

Those Pioneer ACOs that didn't fare as well are considering leaving the program and potentially entering more flexible ACO contracts in the Medicare Shared Savings Program.

Read more here: http://www.heraldonline.com/2013/07/16/5023608/banner-health-network-delivers.html#storylink=cpy