When the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ("CMS") launched its Medicare Shared Savings Program ("MSSP") in 2012, CMS leveraged the upside, risk only-design and the opportunity to be a care model redesign champion.
It also intended to lead the market in value-based care delivery as a way to entice ACOs to join the program. Four years and 539 accepted MSSP ACOs later, CMS released its most recent set of performance results for the 80 percent of ACOs that have survived the program.
While savings of more than $429 million and overall quality improvement sounds like cause for celebration, the real story begins by acknowledging that program success doesn't come easily and requires hard and transformative work...just ask the almost 70 percent (n=272) of MSSP participants who failed to achieve a shared savings distribution. Even for those participants that did achieve program savings, it is likely that the set-up and operating costs associated with the ACO program threatened bottom line financial success...today. But care transformation is not just about today's bottom line, is it? Program veterans, or those who have participated for more than one Performance Year, have shown that it takes years to truly make an impact on cost and quality. The rest of the story will be written by their continued success as they gain a strategic advantage and encourage other providers to invest in their own transformation.
Define and Measure Your Own Success!
Participation in the MSSP is not only an opportunity to impact select quality metrics and recuperate some dollars lost as a result of reduced unnecessary utilization. It is a long-term strategic play to prepare for the not so distant future when up- and down-side risk taking will be the norm, not the exception. The data provided from CMS through the MSSP program is neither real-time nor risk-adjusted, making it extremely difficult for ACOs to assess their performance. In addition, the influx of participants makes it challenging to track and trend an ever-moving target. Furthermore, performance on quality measures is not released to the ACOs until Quarter 2 of the following performance year.
This leaves the ACO limited time to review performance, establish initiatives, and implement efforts to improve outcomes. ACOs need to develop a mechanism by which they can continuously monitor overall cost of care and performance on the established quality measures so that they are not relying on CMS to report on their progress. Instead, continuous process improvement and measurement needs to be the new normal in preparation for a time when CMS will not be the only value-based contract in place. The amount of shared savings achieved, the level of patient satisfaction, and the quality outcomes delivered at the end of each Performance Year should not be a surprise, but all too often it is!
The Focus On Quality Should Go Beyond MSSP Attributed Lives!
The overall quality improvement shown by the MSSP ACOs indicates a program-wide commitment to improved health outcomes that should be applauded. These measures focus on patient satisfaction, reduction in avoidable utilization, preventive care, and evidence-based protocols for at-risk populations. Successful performance on many of these measures requires substantial data aggregation and analysis and proactive outreach to MSSP ACO patients. Where many ACOs falter is by laser-focusing on only the MSSP population; those beneficiaries assigned to the MSSP receive proactive preventative care while other patients are overlooked. While this can be a successful short-term strategy (particularly when resources are limited or information systems have not yet have matured), operationalizing it is a challenge and this approach will not position the organization for long-term success.
Quality outcomes initiatives should be inclusive of all patients, regardless of payer, to demonstrate that your model of care can be scaled and to attract similar shared savings arrangements beyond CMS. The bigger problem is that care delivery does not just change for a given population and organizations are realizing that other payers are benefiting from their performance improvement efforts, which causes barriers to engage these providers in value-based contracting because the organization is producing results that are benefiting the payer without the compensation.
In 2015, CMS set a goal of having 50 percent of Medicare payments made through alternative payment models by 2018. Providers have responded through strong participation in programs such as MSSP, Pioneer ACO, and Bundled Payments and indications are that value-based payments will become the standard. If your organization embraces a value-based world, then program participation can be a good step towards building the necessary muscle. But only if you make a full organization wide commitment to the cultural change required to support care model redesign and do so with a customized definition of success; because unsuccessful participation may be even more costly to an organization than no participation at all.
Organizations who don't take the time to invest in the appropriate care coordination resources will find that they have spent money on ACO staff, slightly reduced inpatient utilization (and therefore revenue), and receive no shared savings distribution to offset these costs. This can be a very frustrating result, leading to dissatisfaction with the program and disillusionment with care coordination. So, jump in! But don't leave the necessary people, data, or innovation behind.
Ms. Calhoun is a manager with GE Healthcare Camden Group and specializes in the areas of care management strategy and design, strategic and business planning analysis, accountable care organization applications, development and implementation, and the development of clinically integrated organizations. Ms. Calhoun has supported numerous clients with the completion of Medicare Shared Savings Program ("MSSP") applications and implementation strategy and planning. She may be reached at megan.calhoun@ge.com.
Mr. McNerney is a manager with GE Healthcare Camden Group. His primary area of focus is bundled payments strategy, design, and implementation. Mr. McNerney also specializes in system and service line strategic planning and new business development for a variety of healthcare organizations. He may be reached at andrew.mcnerney@ge.com.
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