Glass Half-Empty, Half-Full, or Opaque? CMS Spins the New ACO Numbers

Healthcare Informatics: It was a fascinating exercise to read through the news announcement that came out late Tuesday from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) around the latest statistics coming out of Medicare’s two main accountable care organization (ACO) programs, the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) for ACOs, and the Pioneer ACO Program. It was fascinating because of the way in which senior CMS officials apparently decided to try to “spin” the numbers in the most positive way possible, to the point where the agency seems to have purposely obfuscated some of the numbers. But let’s talk about the results first.

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