(July 16, 2013 / Peoria, IL) Today the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced positive and promising results from the first performance year of the Pioneer Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Model, including both higher quality care and lower Medicare expenditures. The Pioneer ACO Model encourages providers and caregivers to deliver more coordinated care for Medicare beneficiaries.
“The overall results show that Pioneer ACOs have been successful in reducing costs for Medicare, improving the quality of care for their patients, and that incentives to align payment with quality can work. The results specific for OSF HealthCare indicate we performed positively in that our results are better than our benchmark. We are trending in the right direction in terms of better coordinating the care of our sickest patients, improving their quality of life while concurrently reducing the total cost of care for all of our Pioneer ACO patients by nearly 1 percent,” according to Robert Sehring, Chief Ministry Services Officer for OSF Healthcare System.
“That approach of better coordinating care has been extended beyond our Pioneer ACO patients to all of our patients,” notes Tara Canty, COO for Accountable Care at OSF Healthcare System. “We embarked on Accountable Care with CMS on January 1, 2012 with the commitment of applying the CMS triple aim of giving our Medicare patients better service, better quality and better care at a lower cost to all of our patients. That extra commitment enables us to better carry out our Mission, to serve persons with the greatest care and love.”
The complete status report which includes metrics for care coordination, the patient and caregiver experiences and preventive care will soon be available on the CMS website. In the meantime, to learn more about the Pioneer ACO model, visit http://innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/Pioneer-ACO-Model/.
The OSF medical centers, physicians, advanced care practitioners and home care services in Illinois comprise the OSF Healthcare System Pioneer ACO. The specific organizations and their locations are listed below. These facilities and clinicians work closely with aligned, independent facilities and clinicians in improving the delivery of health care to beneficiaries under the Pioneer ACO as well as all patients in the communities we serve.