ACO participation reaches new low as advocates press Biden for major changes

The number of accountable care organizations participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program this year shrank to 477, down from 561 in 2018, new data shows.

The National Association of ACOs blamed several Trump administration policies for the decline and pressed for the Biden administration to boost participation.

The new administration needs to “re-examine the balance of incentives and risk to ensure ACO growth and continued savings to Medicare, which ACOs have a history of producing,” said NAACOS President Clif Gaus in a statement Thursday.

The number of ACOs for 2021 is below the ACOs that started with the Trump administration in 2017 (480), according to new data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which oversees the program. ACO participation reached a record high of 561 in 2018 but has declined down to 518 in 2019 and 517 last year, federal data shows.

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