Medicare Launches New Prepayment Program To Fund HIT For Rural ACOs

On October 15, 2014, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the availability of a new prepayment program to fund health information technology (HIT) for rural Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). The initiative, called the ACO Investment Model (AIM) will provide up to $114 million in upfront payments to up to 75 ACOs in rural and underserved areas across the country. The selected ACOs can use the funding to purchase HIT to improve care coordination. CMS will recover these payments through an offset of an ACO’s earned shared savings . . .