Next Generation ACOs generated net savings of $204 million in 2019
UT Southwestern Accountable Care Network in Dallas led the pack in 2019 shared savings, garnering $50,626,938.
Next Generation ACOs collectively resulted in a net savings of $204 million for the Medicare program in 2019, an increase of $19 million over the net savings of $185 million in 2018, according to figures put out today by the National Association of ACOs (NAACOS)
The net amounts include shared savings and losses. The 2019 savings before shared savings and losses are factored in were $559 million, according to NAACOS’s calculations. The comparable figure for 2018 was $406 million.
The Next Generation figures posted on the CMS website today show two Next Generation ACOs, HCP California in El Segundo, California, and CoxHealth Accountable Care in Springfield, Missouri, as having shared losses in 2019, meaning that their spending exceeded their financial benchmarks. HCP California had shared losses of $9,907,993 and CoxHealth, $1,064,636.
The Next Generation ACOs with the largest amount of shared savings — money that goes to the ACO if it spends less than its financial benchmarks — in 2019 were UT Southwestern Accountable Care Network in Dallas, which had shared savings of $50,626,938 and UnityPoint Accountable Care in West Des Moines, Iowa, which had shared savings of $41,987,629.
The NAACO said its cumulative figures for 2019 left out four of the 41 Next Generation ACOs because those four have deferred financial settlement.
Next Generation ACOS have yielded savings for Medicare every year of the program, said Clif Gaus, Sc.D., president of NAACOS, said in the press release: “Very few programs CMS has developed over the years can say that.”
Clif Gaus
The Next Generation program was scheduled to end in 2020 but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, CMS decided to keep it going through 2021. NAACOS wants the program to continue. The Next Generation ACOs get waivers from certain CMS rules.
According to the NAACOS press release, the average quality score for the Next Generation ACOs was 93.7% out of a perfect score of 100.
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