Community Care Partnership of Maine (CCPM), an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) comprised of 12 member health care organizations throughout Maine, is pleased to announce the achievement of shared savings in its second year of participation in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). For the 2017 performance year, CCPM achieved $8.1 million in total savings for Medicare, with $ 4.1 million in shared savings returning to CCPM and its member organizations – all of which are federally qualified health centers or critical access and community hospitals who are collectively committed to improving the quality and effectiveness of health care delivery and reducing unnecessary healthcare costs. CCPM and its member organizations will use the performance payment to invest in infrastructure and continued improvements in the delivery of high quality patient care.
CCPM member Nasson Health Care, a community-based health center managed by York County Community Action Corporation (YCCAC), in Springvale, Maine, used the distribution of funds they received through MSSP Shared Savings to invest in care management services. Care management is a pillar of Nasson’s team-based patient centered approach to help patients manage their medical conditions more effectively.
“YCCAC has invested its portion of this distribution in care management services—staff time, system maintenance, and retaining access to HealthInfoNet, Maine’s Health Information Exchange,” said Martin Sabol, Nasson Health Services Director.
Care management is a core element of the range of activities intended to improve patient care and reduce the need for medical services by helping patients more effectively manage health conditions. A care manager can work with a patient to create attainable health goals, develop a care plan and an action plan, and provide the kind of support the patient needs to achieve the best health possible.
“As a Care Manager at Nasson, I work with patients who may be suffering from multiple chronic diseases or experiencing barriers in their personal lives impacting their ability to stay healthy,” says Leah Young. “The goal is to connect with these patients and provide support and resources, which will enable them to manage their care to achieve the best outcome with the least intrusion, and at the lowest cost.”
A result of this practice has been not only effective treatment for patients with chronic or complex conditions, but also a reduction in overall costs to the health care system. David Koffman, MD, CCPM Chief Medical Officer adds “Nasson Health Care is just one of several organizations who have been able to increase quality, efficiency, and access to care. Our shared focus is on improving the quality of care delivered to our member organizations through a team-based approach. By improving the coordination of care for our patients in their home, in our offices and at other healthcare facilities, we hope to achieve even better outcomes in future years.”
CCPM serves approximately 13,000 Medicare beneficiaries and is required to meet certain quality and performance metrics in the delivery of care for those patients, including in areas of patient/caregiver experience, care coordination and patient safety, preventive health, and treatment of at-risk populations with chronic disease.
Doctors, hospitals and health care providers establish ACOs in order to work together to provide higher-quality coordinated care to their patients, while helping to slow health care cost growth. Community Care Partnership of Maine is currently one of 472 ACOs participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program. Shared Savings Program ACOs serve 9 million beneficiaries. ACOs receive a portion of the Medicare savings generated from lowering the growth in health care costs as long as they also meet standards for high quality care. In 2017, the National Association of ACOs reported that Shared Savings ACOs generated a gross savings of $1.1 billion to Medicare.
More information about the Shared Savings Program is available at CMS.gov.