UT Southwestern Accountable Care Network: Medicare Shared Savings Program Performance Year 2015 Quality and Financial Results

Dr. Bruce Meyer
Dr. Bruce Meyer, Executive Vice President for UT Southwestern Health System Affairs

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced the 2015 performance year results for the Medicare Shared Savings Program and the Pioneer Accountable Care Organization Model that show physicians, hospitals and health care providers participating in Accountable Care Organizations continue to make significant improvements in the quality of care for Medicare beneficiaries, while achieving cost savings.

In 2015, Medicare Accountable Care Organizations had combined total program savings of $466 million, which includes all Accountable Care Organizations’ experiences, for 392 Medicare Shared Savings Program participants and 12 Pioneer Accountable Care Organization Model participants. The results show that more Accountable Care Organizations shared savings in 2015 compared to 2014, and those with more experience tend to perform better over time.

Medicare ACOs are groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers, who come together voluntarily to provide coordinated high quality care to their Medicare patients. The goal of coordinated care is to ensure that patients, especially the chronically ill, get the right care at the right time, while avoiding unnecessary duplication of services and preventing medical errors. When an ACO exceeds quality and financial thresholds – demonstrating achievement of high-quality care and wiser spending of health care dollars – it is able to share in the savings generated for Medicare.

UT Southwestern Accountable Care Network is one of the ACOs that shared savings.

“We continue to be very proud of our successes in achieving a reduction in the cost of care while delivering high-quality care and outcomes. For 2015, our ACO generated savings of nearly $30 million and earned shared savings of more than $14 million as a result, making our financial performance first among ACOs that launched in 2014, eighth in the country overall, and second in the state. In addition, we demonstrated material improvements in quality measures,” said Dr. Bruce Meyer, Executive Vice President for UT Southwestern Health System Affairs, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and holder of the T.C. Lupton Family Professorship in Patient Care, in Honor of Dr. John Dowling McConnell and Dr. David Andrew Pistenmaa. “Ultimately, these results demonstrate how the UT Southwestern ACO benefits patients, health care providers, and the general public.”

Additional Resources

Visit the Medicare Shared Savings Program News and Updates webpage to access the CMS press release and fact sheet, the link to the Performance Year 2015 results file, and to learn more about the program.

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