Aledade's accountable care organizations have saved more than $400 million in unnecessary healthcare spending over the last five years, new data from the company show.
More than half of that savings value was generated in the last year, according to Aledade. In 2019, Aledade's Medicare Shared Savings Program ACOs prevented nearly 100,000 hospitalizations and saved Medicare $180 million.
Of that, $55 million in savings was returned to the participating practices, Aledade said.
“Six years ago, we made a bold wager—that by empowering small, independent primary care practices you could change the face of health care,” said Farzad Mostashari, M.D., CEO and co-founder of Aledade, in a statement.
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“Those primary care practices are delivering on that promise. Thanks to years of hard work and collective effort, our nationwide network of hundreds of primary care practices has proven across states and across payers that you can reduce spending in health care and you can do it the right way: by helping patients stay healthy rather than waiting for them to get sick,” Mostashari said.
Aledade said that more than 95% of its ACOs that have been in operation for three years or more have produced shared savings, and each that transitioned to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' new Pathways to Success ACO model produced savings.
The ACOs also saw significant quality improvements, Aledade said. In North Carolina, for example, participating practices saw their Medicare Advantage star ratings increase from 3 stars to 4.5 stars in one year.
Medicare ACOs also increased primary care services by 7.5% between 2018 and 2019, which led to 90,000 additional primary care visits. In addition, ACOs provided 224,000 more annual wellness checks and 17,000 more transitional care management appointments.
Aledade, which partners with physician practices, health centers and clinics to assist them in building ACOs and other value-based care programs, is aligned with more than 7,300 providers across 26 states, representing 810,000 covered lives.