News Release
November 12, 2020
Health Affairs Publishes Blog Outlining the Superiority of Accountable Care Models
New White House Urged to Prioritize ACO Models in its Value-Based Care Work
As the Biden-Harris administration starts its transition work and crafts its policy priorities, an evaluation published today of different alternative payment models (APMs) outlined the success of accountable care organization (ACO) models, which make providers financially responsible for all of patients’ spending over the course of a year. Compared to APMs that focus on discrete episodes of care or patients’ medical homes, ACO models have generated savings while maintaining quality of care. As such, Clif Gaus, NAACOS president and CEO, and David Pittman, NAACOS policy and communications advisor, argue in a Health Affairs Blog published today that the Biden-Harris administration should focus their attention on ACO models as they work to change the way Medicare pays hospitals, doctors and other providers.
FROM THE BLOG POST: After years of testing a myriad of APMs, data show that population-focused, total-cost-of-care models are consistently producing savings that episodic-based or disease-specific models are not. While CMS continues to experiment by rolling out new models and finetune existing ones, we have enough evidence now to support what is working better. Based on these results, it may be time to slow the proliferation of narrowly focused APMs and place priorities on how to expand and improve the population-focused accountable care model.
Among the data NAACOS points to:
NAACOS this week congratulated President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris on their victory and urged the new administration to prioritize payment and delivery system reform in its work. In its upcoming work, policymakers should look for areas of bipartisan agreement, and advancing value-based payment is one area ripe for attention. The Biden-Harris administration should act on ways to promote participation in and savings from alternative payment models like ACOs.
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Contact:
David Pittman
NAACOS Health Policy and Communications Advisor
202-640-2689 or [email protected]