CMS finalizes rules for Shared Savings ACOs, will account for regional benchmarks

Accountable Care organizations in Medicare’s Shared Savings program will now be held to regional spending benchmarks and not national ones, CMS said Monday, responding to criticism that the earlier rules made it too difficult for strong-performing providers to see savings. In the final rule, CMS said participating ACOs will see their spending benchmarks adjusted on a regional basis once they wrap up their first three-year agreement period, which for many of them would come at the beginning of 2017. CMS said it will lower the weight placed on regional adjustment to 25 percent for these ACOs in their first agreement period, 50 percent in their second agreement year and 70 percent in the third year.

Source: https://www.cms.gov/Newsroom/MediaReleaseDatabase/Press-releases/2016-Press-releases-items/2016-06-06.html