Yet another Pioneer ACO has decided to bow out of the program overseen by CMS, this time in Indiana, with Franciscan St. Francis Health dropping out despite being among the top nationally ranked ACOs that in 2012 earned a bonus of $6.6 million.
The Indianapolis Business Journal reports that, despite that seeming promise, Franciscan said it did not meet benchmarks in the current year. As it happens, none of the 11 ACOs in Indiana achieved any savings or bonuses in 2013, either.
“We did not do as well in meeting our benchmark for reducing the costs of patient care,” Jenny Westfall, regional vice president for Franciscan ACO, said in an e-mailed statement to IBJ.
Franciscan will, however, switch to the Shared Savings ACO model, which has far less financial risk than the Pioneer model.
It’s not actually surprising at this point, with CMS telling MedCity News that it anticipated some degree of variance in the first few years. Specifically, Hoangmai Pham, director of Seamless Care Models Groups for the CMS Innovation Center, said provider organizations need to invest significant resources and should expect some level of stress.
“We always expected there would be a significant ramp up period,” she said. “It’s always harder than people will think it will be. There’s a lot of infrastructure that needs to happen before savings and results.” Of the organizations that have dropped out or will drop out, she said, “We’re actually OK with that. We have no interest in pushing providers over a financial cliff.”
It’s happened in California, too, and it’s likely to continue elsewhere.
