Statement on the Medicare Shared Savings Performance Year 2020 Results

By Blair Childs, Senior Vice President, Public Affairs

Premier congratulates the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) accountable care organizations (ACOs) that achieved shared savings in performance year 2020. This includes 42 members of the Premier Population Health Management Collaborative. MSSP ACOs continue to demonstrate success with $1.9 billion in savings to Medicare in 2020 while rapidly changing care to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. A Premier survey found that participants in alternative payment models heavily relied on their population health capabilities to manage the COVID-19 pandemic and keep people staying at home healthy. Recognizing the success of this program, CMS must take steps to expand the MSSP and leverage it as an innovation platform. CMS should test new alignment approaches to increase the number of beneficiaries in ACOs, improve benchmarks and risk adjustment to ensure ACOs have adequate budgets to care for complex patients, and provide maximum flexibility to innovate care for ACOs that take on downside risk.