Four more hospital systems quit ACO program

Three years after the Centers For Medicare & Medicaid Services selected 32 groups to participate in the Pioneer Accountable Care Organization Model program, they are down to 19 players. Officials say that navigating the program's rules has proved challenging.

The Wall Street Journal: A Medicare Program Loses More Health-Care Providers
Four more hospital systems recently have dropped out of the Pioneer Accountable Care Organization program, a key part of the federal health law, leaving just 19 of the original 32 participants. Accountable care organizations seek to curb costs by better coordinating care. Hospitals and groups of doctors who keep costs down for large groups of Medicare patients get to share in those savings. But navigating the program's rules has proved challenging for some hospitals, even those long experienced in coordinated care (Beck, 9/25).

Modern Healthcare: Medicare's Pioneer Program Down To 19 ACOs After Three More Exit
Three years after CMS carefully selected 32 accountable care organizations deemed best able to manage the Pioneer program's financial risks, three more decided they no longer want to. The new departures -- the program is now down to 19 ACOs -- suggest even the most sophisticated health systems may be unwilling to take losses as policymakers test new payment and delivery models. Franciscan Alliance in Indianapolis, Genesys PHO in Flint, Mich., and Renaissance Health Network in Wayne, Pa., have exited the program, which is now in its third year (Evans, 9/25).