Partners Healthcare

There is no question that the health care industry is in the midst of an exciting and historic period of change as the health care community focuses on improving care and lowering costs. At Partners HealthCare, we want to be part of the solution to these key issues, and we embrace our responsibility to be innovators as well as leaders.

As reported in this morning’s Boston Globe, Partners has been selected by the federal government to participate in a new Pioneer Accountable Care Organization (ACO) model. This initiative, sponsored by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center, focuses on enhanced care coordination as the means to provide Medicare patients with high quality, cost-efficient care. Partners is one of just 32 health care organizations across the country – including five here in Massachusetts – chosen to test the effectiveness of the Pioneer ACO. This makes our Commonwealth among the most penetrated markets in terms of Medicare beneficiaries participating in this new model. The program, which has the potential to slow cost-growth in the long term, will begin January 1st for nearly 150,000 Medicare patients in Massachusetts (45,000 here at Partners).

Under the Pioneer ACO Model, providers will be required to meet quality standards based upon measures such as patient outcomes and care coordination among provider teams. CMS will use robust quality measures and other criteria to reward ACOs for providing beneficiaries with a positive patient experience and better health outcomes. The Pioneer ACO Model is not a health plan or managed care plan; beneficiaries seeing doctors participating in an ACO will maintain the ability to see any doctor or health care provider, and experience the full benefits associated with traditional Medicare.

This partnership with CMS is aligned with other efforts we have pursued to stem costs and improve care. In fact, you may remember that we previously worked with CMS on the innovative Care Management Program back in 2006. As one of only six hospitals nationwide piloting the program, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) developed new strategies to improve the delivery of health care to its most vulnerable high-risk patients, those with multiple health conditions and chronic diseases. In the process, this program saved $2.65 in health care costs for every $1 spent; this success has led to the program’s expansion within our system to Brigham and Women’s Hospital and North Shore Medical Center.

Our ongoing partnership with CMS reflects our continued mission to reduce costs while providing quality care, for now and the future. The ACO Model is another step forward in this journey of providing the best possible – and affordable – care to our patients, their families and the communities we serve.