News Release
January 12, 2022
NAACOS Statement on CMS’s Health Affairs Forefront Blog
Attributed to Clif Gaus, Sc.D., President and CEO of the National Association of ACOs
Leaders at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) this week published a Health Affairs Forefront Blog reiterating their vision for a stronger Medicare. Among the goals outlined was to leverage accountable care models to create more affordable, higher quality care. This accentuates the CMS Innovation Center’s recent Strategy Refresh to have every Medicare beneficiary in a relationship with a provider accountable for their quality and total cost of care by 2030.
NAACOS supports these CMS goals, including bringing more patients into accountable care models. Data are clear that ACOs help lower Medicare’s rate of spending and improve quality of care. Supporting ACOs, including increasing incentives for participation and offering more tools to improve care, is fundamental to building a stronger Medicare. Last year, NAACOS outlined numerous ways CMS can advance these policies, and we stand ready to help CMS implement these ideas. Additionally, ACOs remain well positioned to advance health equity, another administrative priority, given their accountability to patients’ total cost of care. NAACOS published separate position papers last year offering recommendations on ways to leverage ACOs to advance health equity. We thank CMS for its leadership on these important issues.
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Contact:
David Pittman
Senior Policy Advisor
202-640-2689 or dpittman@naacos.com
