CMS Reaffirms Commitment To Performance-Based Contracting For Pioneer ACOs

On April 23, 2013, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reiterated its commitment to implementing performance-based contracting for Pioneer accountable care organizations (ACOs) in calendar year 2013. In February 2013, the 32 organizations selected in December 2011 to participate in the Pioneer ACO demonstration had asked CMS to push back the start of performance-based contracting until 2014; the organizations expressed concern over the proposed quality benchmarks and the methodology used to develop them. The Pioneer ACOs are reimbursed on a fee-for-service (FFS) basis. During the first year of the demonstration (which started January . . .