Saving money while raising the quality of health care has beenthe central focus of the health care industry—from providers tohealth insurance carriers—since the arrival of the PatientProtection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). One of the biggestdrivers of both cost savings and increased quality was theimplementation of accountable care organizations (ACOs).

PASS?: In August 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its2014 financial and quality performance results for its MedicareACOs. According to CMS, ACOs in its Pioneer ACO Model and MedicareShared Savings Program (MSSP) generated more than $411 million intotal savings in 2014—which would seem to indicate that ACOs areworking, and working well.

FAIL? There's another piece to the puzzle,however. Of the 353 Pioneer and MSSP ACOs, 97 qualified for sharedsavings payments upwards of $422 million. So a little math seems toindicate the opposite: ACOs actually cost CMS $11 million in2014.

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