Director of Publishing at AAPC
Brad Ericson, MPC, CPC, COSC, is a seasoned healthcare writer and editor.He directed publishing at AAPC for nearly 12 years and worked at Ingenix for 13 years and Aetna Health Plans prior to that. He has been writing and publishing about healthcare since 1979. He received his Bachelor's in Journalism from Idaho State University and his Master's of Professional Communication degree from Westminster College of Salt Lake City.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a proposal it says will “strengthen the Shared Savings Program for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) through a greater emphasis on primary care services and promoting transitions to performance-based risk arrangements.” The agency said its proposed rule reflects input from program participants, experts, consumer groups, and the stakeholder community, at large. CMS is seeking to continue this important dialogue “to ensure that the Medicare Savings Program ACOs are successful in providing seniors and people with disabilities with better care at lower costs.”
ACOs encourage doctors, hospitals and other health care providers to work together to better coordinate care when people are sick and to keep people healthy, which helps to reduce growth in health care costs and improve outcomes. ACOs become eligible to share savings with Medicare when they deliver that care more efficiently, while meeting or exceeding performance benchmarks for quality of care.
The Shared Savings Program now includes more than 330 ACOs in 47 states, providing care to more than 4.9 million beneficiaries in Medicare fee for service. Recently, CMS announced first year Shared Savings Program (SSP) results:
CMS is seeking comment on a number of adjustments to improve the Medicare Shared Savings Program:
A fact sheet provides more information about the proposed rule, which will be open to a 60-day comment period.
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