Pioneer ACOs are improving care and cutting costs, CMS asserts

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on Tuesday announced “promising” results for the first performance year of the Pioneer Accountable Care Organization (ACO) model, including both higher quality care and lower Medicare expenditures. Costs for the more than 669,000 beneficiaries aligned to Pioneer ACOs grew by only 0.3% in 2012, whereas costs for non-ACO-aligned beneficiaries grew by 0.8% in the same period, according to a CMS press release.