Attributed to Aisha Pittman, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs of the National Association of ACOs
November 1, 2024
“The National Association of ACOs (NAACOS) commends CMS for its ongoing efforts to support ACOs by finalizing policies that protect against significant and unusual billing anomalies, thus fostering long-term stability and certainty for ACOs. We are encouraged by CMS’s commitment to advancing the Medicare Shared Savings Program, particularly through reducing the burden of beneficiary notifications, offering prepaid savings for successful ACOs, incorporating upward benchmark adjustments for ACOs serving rural and underserved populations, and establishing billing for advanced primary care.
“While we welcome these advancements, we remain concerned about unresolved issues that threaten ACO participation in the Shared Savings Program. Historically successful ACOs are faced with increasingly reduced financial targets over time. Current policies fail to adequately account for prior success, leaving ACOs unable to sustain robust clinical interventions and enhanced benefits for beneficiaries. Additionally, new quality reporting requirements will necessitate costly technology investments without producing actionable quality data. These challenges discourage clinician participation in ACOs and hinder progress toward CMS’ goal of all Medicare payments in an accountable care relationship by 2030.”
About NAACOS. The National Association of ACOs (NAACOS) represents more than 9.1 million beneficiary lives through Medicare’s population health-focused payment and delivery models. NAACOS is a member-led and member-owned nonprofit of more than 470 ACOs in Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial insurance working on behalf of health systems and physician provider organizations across the nation to improve quality of care for patients and reduce health care cost.
