MCNT, an affiliate of USMD Holdings, Inc., Selected as a New Accountable Care Organization to Improve Care for Medicare Benef...
December 30 2013 - 1:00PM
Business Wire
More partnerships between doctors and hospitals
strengthen coordinated care for Medicare beneficiaries
Medical Clinic of North Texas (MCNT), an affiliate of USMD
Holdings, Inc., (NASDAQ: USMD), has
been selected as one of 123 new Accountable Care Organizations
(ACOs) in Medicare, providing approximately 1.5 million more
Medicare beneficiaries with access to high-quality, coordinated
care across the United States, Health and Human Services (HHS)
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced today.
Doctors, hospitals and healthcare providers establish ACOs in
order to work together to provide higher-quality, coordinated care
to their patients, while helping to slow health care cost growth.
Since passage of the Affordable Care Act, more than 360 ACOs have
been established, serving over 5.3 million Americans with Medicare.
Beneficiaries seeing healthcare providers in ACOs always have the
freedom to choose doctors inside or outside of the ACO. ACOs share
with Medicare any savings generated from lowering the growth in
health care costs when they meet standards for high-quality
care.
“Accountable Care Organizations are delivering higher-quality
care to Medicare beneficiaries and are using Medicare dollars more
efficiently,” Secretary Sebelius said. “This is a great example of
the Affordable Care Act rewarding hospitals and doctors that work
together to help our beneficiaries get the best possible care.”
The ACOs must meet quality standards to ensure that savings are
achieved through improving care coordination and providing care
that is appropriate, safe and timely. The Centers for Medicare
& Medicaid Services (CMS) evaluates ACO quality performance
using 33 quality measures on patient and caregiver experience of
care, care coordination and patient safety, appropriate use of
preventive health services, and improved care for at-risk
populations.
The new ACOs include a diverse cross-section of healthcare
providers across the country, including providers delivering care
in underserved areas. More than half of all ACOs are physician-led
organizations that serve fewer than 10,000 beneficiaries.
Approximately one in five ACOs include community health centers,
rural health clinics, and critical access hospitals that serve
low-income and rural communities.
Affordable Care Act provisions have a substantial effect on
reducing the growth rate of Medicare spending. Growth in Medicare
spending per beneficiary hit historic lows during the 2010 to 2012
period, and this trend has continued into 2013. Projections by both
the Office of the Actuary at CMS and by the Congressional Budget
Office estimate that Medicare spending per beneficiary will grow at
approximately the rate of growth of the economy for the next
decade, breaking a decades-old pattern of spending growth
outstripping economic growth.
The next application period for organizations interested in
participating in the Shared Savings Program beginning January 2015
will be in summer 2014.
More information about the Shared Savings Program is available
at:
https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-Fee-for-Service-Payment/sharedsavingsprogram/index.html?redirect=/sharedsavingsprogram/
For a list of the 123 new ACOs announced today, visit:
http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-Fee-for-Service-Payment/sharedsavingsprogram/Downloads/2014-ACO-Contacts-Directory.pdf
About USMD Holdings, Inc.
USMD is a publicly held (NASDAQ: USMD), physician-led integrated
healthcare system committed to exemplary patient care.
Headquartered in Irving, Texas, USMD serves the Dallas-Fort Worth
metropolitan area with more than 250 physicians and associate
practitioners, and provides healthcare services to patients in just
under 20 different specialties at its hospitals, cancer treatment
centers and nearly 70 physician clinics. For more information about
USMD, visit www.usmd.com.
USMD Holdings, Inc.Megan Reisig,
214-493-4024Megan.Reisig@usmd.com
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