Medicare Shared Savings Program Accountable Care Organizations Have Shown Potential for Reducing Spending and Improving Quality

The Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP), established by section 3022 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, introduced accountable care organizations (ACOs) into the Medicare program to promote accountability of hospitals, physicians, and other providers for a patient population, coordinate items and services, and encourage investment in infrastructure and redesigned care processes for high-quality and efficient service delivery. We will review ACOs that participate in the MSSP and describe their performance on quality measures and cost savings over the first 3 years of the program. In addition, we will describe the characteristics of the ACOs that performed well on measures and achieved savings and analyze their spending and utilization of services over time. We will also identify these ACOs' strategies for and challenges to achieving quality and cost savings.

Announced or Revised	Agency	Title	Component	Report Number(s)	Expected Issue Date (FY)
Completed	Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services	Accountable Care Organizations: Savings, Quality, and Promising Practices	Office of Evaluation and Inspections	OEI-02-15-00450	2018