Accountable Care Organization (ACO)

Atrius Health is pleased to announce that the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission (HPC) has certified it as an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) in its new, first-in-the-nation program. The HPC’s first round of ACO Certification includes 17 HPC-certified ACOs and is a significant milestone for Massachusetts, making it the first state to implement state-wide, all-payer standards for care delivery.

At Atrius Health, we have a long history of working with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and commercial payers to provide patients with outstanding quality care at lower costs.

We are delighted to announce that our organization has been selected to participate in the 2017 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Next Generation Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Model – a transformative initiative sponsored by the CMS Innovation Center. As a Next Generation ACO, Atrius Health will work closely with CMS to provide its Medicare beneficiaries with higher-quality care at lower costs.

Today’s announcement was the culmination of a competitive selection process that began in March 2016 with the national release of a Request for Letters of Intent from CMS.

Atrius Health recently announced that its Pioneer Accountable Care Organization (ACO) has achieved over a 95 percent quality score from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and saved Medicare $6.8 million. Atrius Health’s practices achieved high quality and patient experience scores while also achieving savings for Medicare according to 2015 results released today by the CMS. These results demonstrate the organization’s continued success in achieving the Triple Aim of improving health outcomes and patient experience as well as reducing the total cost of care.

The cost of quality health care is a significant issue for people across the Commonwealth. Atrius Health has long been committed to providing the highest quality patient-centered care while actively bringing down the cost of care for our patients, their families, and our communities. On January 20th, the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission (HPC) released a special report on price variation which identified Atrius Health as a highly paid physician group.

While we thank the Health Policy Commission for their efforts to shed light on opportunities to contain growing healthcare costs,

At Atrius Health, we strongly support sharing best practices so that more health systems may contribute to the growing movement to provide high-quality, cost-effective care as Accountable Care Organizations. As a member of the Health Care Transformation Task Force, we recently took part in a collaboration with providers, patients, payers and purchasers to develop an Action Memo outlining best practices for entering into an effective ACO agreement.

In an interview with FierceHealthcare,

Atrius Health submitted testimony before the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing today in support of two important pieces of legislation that will support the practices and our patients. Writing on behalf of Atrius Health, Dr. Richard Lopez, Chief Medical Officer, submitted comments in support of H. 267, An Act Advancing & Expanding Access to Telemedicine Services as well as H. 984 and S.

At Atrius Health, everything we do is focused on improving patients’ lives and health outcomes, and ensuring value by reducing the overall cost of care, aka Total Medical Expense (TME). As the Health Policy Commission kicks off the 2015 Healthcare Cost Trends Hearing on Monday, October 5th, Atrius Health is proud to highlight our performance in making healthcare more affordable while consistently demonstrating among the highest quality levels.

Public Reporting:  The Center for Healthcare Information and Analysis (CHIA) has previously reported that Atrius Health is below market average health status adjusted TME (percentages noted are compared to 1.0 for the network average) for two of three commercial plans and has reduced costs with a third commercial plan:

When the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services launched the Pioneer ACO model, Atrius Health, which has long supported value-based care, jumped at the opportunity to participate. Recently, Emily Brower, our Vice President of Population Health shared some of our chief learnings throughout our journey as a Pioneer ACO.

Atrius Health announced yesterday it has ranked as the highest on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) overall quality score among Pioneer Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) in Massachusetts and has ranked third highest nationally based on 33 ACO quality measures tracked by the CMS. Atrius Health’s medical groups achieved among the highest quality and patient experience scores nationally while also achieving savings for Medicare according to 2014 results released today by the CMS for over 300 organizations participating in Medicare ACOs.

As an active member of the Health Care Transformation Task Force, Atrius Health was pleased to provide information about our experience to help inform this report. Below is the press release announcing the release of a white paper on best practices for identifying high cost patients with complex needs.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 1, 2015) –The Health Care Transformation Task Force, a consortium of patients, payers, providers and purchasers working to transform the U.S.