Virginia Collaborative Care: Medicare Shared Savings Program Performance Year 2015 Quality and Financial Results

FAIRFAX, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) 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.

Virginia Collaborative Care (VCC) is one of the ACOs that shared savings.

Dr. Alok Gupta, VCC Medical Director, said: “For the third year in a row
we have been able to generate savings for Medicare and improve quality
of care for our Medicare beneficiaries. In 2015 our providers helped
generate over $8.8 million in savings for the Medicare Shared Savings
Program. We are proud and grateful for their hard work every day to
reduce unnecessary costs while improving healthcare quality. Since
launching our ACO, we have been able to reduce inpatient visits by 13%
and 30-day hospital readmissions by 10%. We’ve also improved our
Medicare quality scores and last year improved in all 8 preventive care
measures including tobacco cessation and colorectal screening. It’s an
honor to play a role improving the health of our Virginia community.”

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.

Contacts

For Virginia Collaborative Care:
Sarah Bell, 914-597-2908