Pioneer ACOs cut medical spending by better coordinating care

In the first year of an experimental program to refashion Medicare, four of five Massachusetts networks of hospitals and physicians were able to slow spending by better coordinating medical care for patients, the Boston Globe reported. The accountable care organization (ACO) program, a key element of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, changes how providers are paid, putting them on a budget to treat a group of patients, rather than paying them for each individual service.

Five organizations that signed up to pioneer the ACO concept are from Eastern Massachusetts and have about 150,000 Medicare recipients in the program. Four of the five—Partners HealthCare, Steward Health Care, the Beth Israel Deaconess Physician Organization, and the Mount Auburn Cambridge Independent Practice Association—said they spent less on patient care than the Medicare target for 2012, in part by reducing expensive hospital stays. The groups split the savings with Medicare.