Another accountable care organization has dropped out of the CMS Innovation Center's Pioneer ACO initiative.
The Lebanon, N.H., medical center pulled out of Medicare's accountable care test after losing money. The Pioneer initiative requires participating hospitals and doctors to repay Medicare for failing to meet performance targets on quality and savings. The Dartmouth-Hitchcock ACO exit follows earlier departures that reduced the number of Pioneers to 19 from the original 32.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock owed $3.6 million for Year 3 for spending above its benchmark, as well as $1.4 million from Year 2. The facility did have good quality scores.
The ACO hopes to join CMS's Next Generation ACO model which is expected to launch in January 2016.
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Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.