CMS rejects delaying Pioneer ACOs' performance-based pay

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services did not accept a request from its Pioneer accountable care organizations to delay tying payments to quality outcomes, Law360 reported. CMS said it has resolved concerns that quality standards weren't grounded in real-world data. The Pioneer ACOs had previously asked the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to revise quality benchmarks the ACOs have to meet to qualify for Medicare bonuses, threatening to drop out of the program otherwise. The Pioneer ACOs noted that 19 of 31 quality measures were set without anchoring methodology, reflecting a lack of data. Article