ACOs Edging Toward Downside Risk

The Trump administration’s push to get more Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) ACOs to take on downside risk is having an effect, but there are still many non-takers.

According to tallies in an analysis published on the Health Affairs blog last month, 53% of the 139 MSSP ACOs that migrated out of the regular MSSP program last year into the administration’s Pathways to Success program took on downside risk. That makes sense because the Pathways program is designed to encourage ACOs to take on downside risk. But a greater proportion (309 out of 514, or 60%) of the MSSP ACOs stayed in the legacy program and only 17% of those ACOs took on downside risk.

Full Article