Health Affairs Blog 10/21/2019

By the start of the third quarter of 2019, there were 1,588 existing public and private ACO contracts, covering almost 44 million lives. 

Looking across all payers, there was a net decrease in ACO contracts over the past year (third quarter of 2018 to third quarter of 2019) – the first decrease seen to-date.

The proportion of ACOs taking on any downside risk is generally increasing across all ACO types and sizes, with some important patterns emerging.

CMS is also planning a rapid expansion of other value-based options beyond ACOs, notably the new Primary Care First model (which includes options for patients living with serious illness), Direct Contracting model (which CMS envisions will be a next step for advanced ACOs), and specialty care payment models for kidney health and radiation oncology.

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