Final Rule Medicare Program; Medicare Shared Savings Program: Accountable Care Organizations

In this final rule issued June 9, 2015, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) updated the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) to create a new accountable care organization (ACO) risk model called Track 3. The new model is based on some of the successful features of the Pioneer ACO Model. Compared to the current MSSP, Track 3 includes higher rates of shared savings, the prospective assignment of beneficiaries, and the opportunity to use new care coordination tools. The final rule includes provisions to streamline the data sharing between CMS and ACOs, with the goal of helping ACOs . . .