January 17, 2025
In a recently released report, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) states that the agency has made substantial progress on its goal for all people with traditional Medicare to be in a care relationship with accountability for quality and total cost of care by 2030. As of January 2025, 53.4% of people with traditional (fee-for-service) Medicare are in an accountable care relationship with a provider. This represents more than 14.8 million people and marks a 4.3 percentage point increase from January 2024, the largest annual increase since CMS began tracking accountable care relationships.
This includes patients whose providers are in Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), including the Medicare Shared Savings Program ACOs and entities participating in Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (Innovation Center) accountable care models, as well as other Innovation Center models focused on total cost of care, advanced primary care, and specialty care.
ACOs are groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health-care professionals that work together to provide patients with high-quality, coordinated service and care, improve health outcomes, and manage costs.
Steadily increased participation in accountable care arrangements demonstrates that CMS' changes over the last few years through rulemaking and Innovation Center models connect people to longitudinal care relationships with providers.
For more information, visit PALTmed’s webpage, Accountable Care Organizations | PALTmed, and read the CMS fact sheet.
Be sure to also save the date, June 4, 2025, for PALTmed’s Business of Medicine Symposium. This one-day virtual meeting covers nursing home finances, technology strategies, private equity, ACO collaboration, and practice valuation.
