Press Releases

Washington, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (WA-01) sent a bipartisan letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), urging the agency to continue fostering Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) participating in the beginning stage model. ACOs are a market-based solution where groups of physicians, hospitals, and other providers voluntarily collaborate to achieve enhanced quality of care, reduced costs and improved health outcomes.

In the letter to CMS Administrator Seema Verma, DelBene requested that Track 1 ACOs which have generated savings, met quality standards or are moving toward these goals, be permitted to continue with the Medicare ACO program for an additional three years.

“ACOs are using technology such as telemedicine and electronic health record analysis to find innovative ways to improve health care delivery,” said DelBene. “We should be supporting health care providers that are volunteering to venture into new delivery models. Capping the Track 1 participation to just two 3-year agreement periods may hobble the pipeline of providers participating in alternative payment models. We need to ensure Medicare patients are given access to the very best in quality care.”

ACOs are a value-based health care delivery model, where the providers are rewarded for the quality of care they provide to patients and their ability to lower costs. More than 80 percent of Medicare ACOs participate as Track 1, a one-sided risk model where ACOs are not forced to pay back expenditures that exceed the spending benchmark. Because there is no risk in participating in the Track 1 model, CMS limits the amount of time an ACO can participate in this model. The current limit is two 3-year agreement periods, totaling 6 years. The first full year of the Medicare ACO program was in 2013 which means for the first time Track 1 ACOs will be forced into a risk-bearing model or kicked out of the program.

Cosigners of the letter include Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-MN), Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), Rep. Pat Meehan (R-PA), Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) and Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL).

The full letter can be read here.