Accountable Care Organizations in Rural America.

摘要

The Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP), more commonly referred to as the Medicare ACO Program, was created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA). The first Medicare ACOs were announced in April 2012. Private sector demonstrations of the ACO model began as early as 2009 with 5 sites. Currently, 220 Medicare MSSP ACOs operate across the United States, and 32 ACOs operate under Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services demonstration authority as Pioneer ACOs. Other ACOs have formed through commercial insurer and provider agreements, bringing the total as of April 2013 to more than 400. This policy brief presents data collected from Medicare ACOs regarding their presence in metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties. An ACO is a health care provider group (generally hospitals and/or physicians) that contracts with a payer (Medicare for the purposes of this policy brief) to provide high clinical quality and positive patient experience at reduced cost.