Voluntary, New Care Coordination Program Created to Offer High Quality Service and Care to Beneficiaries Through Partnership with Medicare
PLYMOUTH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The Jordan Community Accountable Care Organization (ACO) today announced it has been selected to participate in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (Shared Savings Program) ACO, a multifaceted new program sponsored by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Through the Shared Savings Program, the Jordan Community ACO will work with CMS to provide Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries with high quality service and care, while reducing the growth in Medicare expenditures through enhanced care coordination.
“As one of the first healthcare organizations on the South Shore and Cape Cod to be selected as an ACO, the Jordan Community ACO will provide its members with better health, better healthcare, and better value,” says Peter Holden, Jordan Health Systems President and CEO. “Delivering outstanding quality and care is something that we’ve been providing to patients for more than 100 years. The Jordan Community ACO ushers in a new chapter of providing outstanding quality and care to those living on the South Shore and Cape Cod.”
The Shared Savings Program will reward ACOs that lower the rate of growth in health care costs for Medicare beneficiaries while meeting performance standards on quality of care and putting patients first. ACOs are groups of doctors and other health care providers working together to provide high quality service and care for their patients. Provider participation in an ACO is purely voluntary and Medicare beneficiaries retain their current ability to seek treatment from any provider they wish.
CMS will use robust quality measures to reward ACOs, including Jordan Community ACO, for providing Medicare beneficiaries with a positive patient experience and better health outcomes, while also reducing growth in Medicare expenditures for the same patient population.
"Accountable Care Organizations will improve coordination and communication among physicians and other providers which will help improve care and lower costs for Medicare beneficiaries,” said Marilyn B. Tavenner, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. “We are excited to welcome Jordan Community ACO as a partner with Medicare and look forward to working with them to improve care for Medicare beneficiaries in the South Shore and Cape Cod areas."
Under the Shared Savings Program, 27 ACOs have entered into agreements with Medicare to take responsibility for the quality of care furnished to individual beneficiaries in return for the opportunity to share in any savings with the Medicare program for improved care.
The Shared Savings Program was created as part of the Affordable Care Act, the health care reform law of 2010, to better coordinate care for Medicare patients through ACOs. Instead of patients having to navigate the complex health system on their own, these ACOs will work hand-in-hand with patients to ensure patients do not slip through the cracks. ACOs will encourage providers to work more closely together than ever before and offer incentives to providers that better coordinate a patient’s care and treat patients across care settings—including doctors’ offices, hospitals, and other health care settings. The Shared Savings Program is not a Medicare Advantage plan or an HMO. Beneficiaries with fee-for-service Medicare will still have the right to use any doctor or hospital who accepts Medicare, at any time.
Today’s announcement is the culmination of a comprehensive selection process that began in the fall of 2011 with the national release of the Medicare Shared Savings Program application by CMS. Jordan Community ACO was selected based on rigorous eligibility criteria and program requirements.
About Jordan Community ACO
The Jordan Community ACO is a not-for-profit organization based in Plymouth, Massachusetts and founded in 2012. The Jordan Community ACO consists of more than 100 physicians from Plymouth Bay Medical Associates, Jordan Physician Associates, and a number of specialty physicians from Jordan Hospital. Together, the Jordan Community ACO physicians coordinate the healthcare of more than 6,000 Medicare beneficiaries in Plymouth and Barnstable Counties. This approach ensures that patients receive the best, most appropriate care from the right provider at the right time by identifying and addressing problems early, before hospital care becomes necessary. Working with Medicare, the Jordan Community ACO provides its beneficiaries with higher quality care while reducing growth in Medicare expenditures through enhanced care coordination. For questions about the Jordan Community ACO, please contact Mary Ann Doerr at 508-830-2859.
CONTACT:
For Jordan Community ACO
Christopher Smalley, 508-989-4679
KEYWORDS: United States North America Massachusetts
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