Accountable Care Organizations: Risk and Reward

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In January 2015, HHS set the target of funneling 50% of Medicare payments through alternative payment models and tying 90% of fee-for-service payments to quality or value by the end of 2018. MACRA is part of that shift by changing the way Medicare pays physicians. Now, as reported by Modern Healthcare, the prospect of rewards from value-based care arrangements like ACOs is luring a “small but growing” number of ACOs into risker contracts with Medicare. However, as the article stresses, this is still a minority number of ACOs, with the vast majority in “upside-only” models where they share in savings but do not risk money if costs rise. It is also not clear that all ACOs taking on risk are prepared to be in such a structure.

ACO Models and MACRA

Under MACRA, the article points out that providers can avoid MIPS requirements if they have significant enough investments in eligible alternative payment models. However, most providers are not ready for this stage yet and CMS estimates around 10% of physicians in 2017 will qualify under MACRA as participating in an “advanced” APM.

Some of the existing Medicare models qualify as advanced APMs, but those participating in the ACO experiments are in models that do not qualify. The article notes that in 2017, only 42 of 480 ACOs in the Medicare Shared Savings Program qualify, for example. Other models are forthcoming, which should rise that number.

Investment Risk

Ultimately, the article describes, the upfront investment in infrastructure is risky enough for many ACOs, even without taking on downside risk. The average cost to participate in the Medicare Shared Savings Program was $1.62 million for 144 ACOs surveyed in the spring of 2016 by the National Association of ACOs. Forty-three percent said they’d “definitely or likely” quit the program if the CMS required them to assume risk for losses, although 84% said they would be willing in the next six years.

Revenue Loss?

According to a recent RAND survey, there are a number of scenarios under which a percentage of physicians increase their participation in advanced APMs, with the rest in the MIPS track. To project how much Medicare would spend on physician services under MACRA, the RAND researchers drew up three scenarios of physician participation in Advanced APMs. In each scenario, the percentage of physicians in these models increased from 8.5% in 2015 to 40% in 2030, with the rest in MIPS.

However, the scenarios differed by the relative riskiness — the potential upside and downside — of the advanced APMs chosen. In the lowest-risk scenario, physicians choose advanced APMs with financial risk similar to that for a CPCP medical home. In the highest-risk scenario, all the advanced APMs resembled Next Generation ACOs. The medium-risk scenario resembled a collection of medical home, Next Generation ACO, and MSSP Track 2 models. Generally speaking, the riskier the Advanced APM, the more money physicians stand to lose if they pump up the volume of services, according to the RAND study.

Results Still Questionable

CMS has promoted the cost savings of APMs, but reports from 2017 have raised doubts. Citing data from a number of APMs, a report found, for example, in 2014 CMS said the 20 ACOs in its Pioneer program, and the 333 in the Medicare Shared Savings Program, saved a total of $411 million. However, after paying bonuses to the strong performers, the ACO program reported a net loss of $2.6 million. And the fact that only nine health systems remain in Pioneer ACO program is telling, as many jumped ship over penalties tied to benchmarks deemed too high.

Even with this information, more recent research found that forty-seven percent of respondents said they don’t know which of MACRA’s two payment tracks they will fall under, indicating that most are still trying to figure out the ins and outs of the program, suggesting providers are still looking into possible ACO options that may best fit their practices.

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