APG Leaders Tout Primary Care Focus’s Role in MSSP Savings, Quality Gains
In the wake of an important update from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP), one of the nation’s leading associations representing physician groups involved in value-based contracting has released a press release focusing on the strong contribution of medical groups focused on primary care, to that program’s savings process.
On Oct. 29, senior CMS officials announced record net savings for the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) for calendar year 2023: a total of more than $2.1 billion in net savings, along with $3.1 billion in performance payments to accountable care organizations (ACOs) participating in the program. The press release that CMS posted to its website on Tuesday afternoon noted that “The Shared Savings Program yielded more than $2.1 billion in net savings in 2023 — the largest savings in the Shared Savings Program’s history. In addition, Shared Savings Program Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are providing higher-quality care and supporting policies CMS has adopted to enhance primary care, expand access to accountable care to underserved communities, and prioritize quality care for common chronic conditions.”
Per all that, leaders at the Washington, D.C.-based APG (America’s Physician Groups) posted a press release to their website on Oct. 29 touting primary care-focused physician groups’ contribution to the savings and quality results referenced by CMS. The press release began thus: “Physician-led organizations focused on primary care – including multiple member organizations of America’s Physician Groups (APG) – continue to produce top results in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP), based on 2023 results released today by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). These primary care-focused organizations earned “significantly higher net per capita savings than ACOs with a smaller proportion of primary care clinicians,” the agency said in a news release, while also earning high quality scores,” the association noted.
The press release continued in that vein, “A pertinent example: APG member organizations Austin Regional Clinic (ARC) and the Ascension Seton Health Alliance, ACO partners that have scored shared savings every year for the past decade and are once again among top performers. ARC’s president and CEO, Anas Daghestani, MD, also chairs APG’s Board of Directors. APG is now analyzing the announced MSSP results and will shortly issue a more complete list of its high-performing members who are MSSP participants.”
And the press release quoted Susan Dentzer, APG’s president and CEO, as saying that “These newly announced MSSP results build on earlier ones demonstrating that physician-led ACOs produce the highest net savings, and that they do so largely through primary-care–based efforts to keep patients as healthy as possible and out of hospitals. We know from experience that our members then plow their shared savings back into better care coordination, care redesign, improved infrastructure, and other changes that drive superior outcomes for patients and savings for the government and taxpayers.”
And it quoted Dr. Daghestani as stating that “APG and its members continue to believe that value-based care models such as MSSP, ACO REACH, other models introduced by the CMS Innovation Center, and arrangements in which physician groups share risk with Medicare Advantage plans are the best path forward for U.S. health care,” said Daghestani. “We applaud the performance of all our member groups, who seek to be held accountable for costs and quality and take responsibility for America’s health and health care.”
