CMS releases first ACO outcomes data

Accountable care organizations have had varied success with diabetes and heart disease patients, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis of Medicare data. Medicare's ACO quality data track 33 different quality measures, including quality of doctor coordination, level of unnecessary patient harm, patient experience and whether patients receive the right preventive services, according to the article. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released data on five of these measures collected from 141 ACOs in 2012. The first four measures relate to outcomes on patients with diabetes, while the fifth concerns heart disease. On average, the ACOs met their goals for between 65 and 75 percent of patients, depending on the measure. Read the full story from FierceHealthcare