Health Law Pilot Program Saves Nearly $400M In Two Years

The Wall Street Journal: Pioneer Model Saved Medicare Nearly $400 Million In Two Years
A key pilot program in the federal health law saved Medicare nearly $400 million over two years and is the first alternative-payment model certified to cut costs while improving health-care quality, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said. That finding by independent actuaries makes the Pioneer Accountable Care Organization model eligible to be expanded to larger group of Medicare beneficiaries, CMS officials said. ... The Pioneer ACOs have met with mixed success by other measures. Thirteen of the original 32 participating hospital systems have dropped out or switched to other models after failing to meet performance targets. (Beck, 5/4)

Vox: This Small, Wonky Obamacare Program Saved $384 Million Over 2 Years
Obamacare took what an economist once described to me as the "spaghetti approach" to reducing health-care costs: throwing a bunch of different experiments at the wall and seeing what stuck. Today, the law arguably had its first success: Medicare's independent actuary has certified that an Obamacare program has saved money — $384 million over the past two years, to be exact. And the Obama administration is now eying how to make this program bigger — and, ideally, generate even more savings. (Kliff, 5/4)

Reuters: U.S. Medicare Test Program Saved Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars
A U.S. government test program with doctors and hospitals slowed healthcare spending in Medicare coverage for the elderly and disabled by hundreds of millions of dollars in 2012 and 2013 but savings were less in the second year, a study released Monday said. The Journal of the American Medical Association study looked at beneficiaries in 32 Pioneer Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), in which hospitals and doctors follow 33 quality and care standards for Medicare fee-for-service patients. In return they can receive a portion of any healthcare savings back from the government. (Humer, 5/4)

CNBC: Obamacare Program Generates 'Substantial' Medicare Savings
An Obamacare program designed to hold down Medicare costs and improve patient outcomes generated more than $384 million in savings in its first two years of operation, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said Monday. The savings realized from participants in Pioneer Accountable Care Organizations—groups of medical providers that coordinate patient care in return for lump-sum Medicare payments—represents about $300 per Medicare beneficiary per year during 2012 and 2013, Burwell said, citing an independent evaluation report. (Mangan, 5/4)

The Boston Globe: U.S. Lauds Plan To Rein In Costs Of Medicare
Four Massachusetts health care organizations saved nearly $150 million in Medicare costs by coordinating care for patients and working to keep them healthy and out of hospitals, according to a federal report. (Dayal McCluskey, 5/5)

The Hill: Obamacare Program Saves Medicare $400 Million
A pilot program created under ObamaCare to change Medicare's payment system saved almost $400 million and will be expanded, the administration announced Monday. An independent report released by the Department of Health and Human Services on Monday finds that the pilot program saved Medicare more than $384 million across 2012 and 2013. The pilot program, called Pioneer Accountable Care Organizations, is part of an effort to shift Medicare to paying for quality instead of quantity of care. Under the program, groups of doctors agree to accept lump payments under Medicare instead of individual payments for each service they provide, as in the traditional Medicare payment system. (Sullivan, 5/4)

Politico Pro: Medicare Will Expand Payment Reform Program
Pioneer accountable care organizations saved the Medicare program more than $384 million in their first two years, and the program has earned a key endorsement to expand, the Obama administration announced Monday. (Pradhan, 5/4)

CQ Healthbeat: Closely Watched Accountable-Care Program Saved $385 Million, Study Says
An analysis by Medicare officials pegged the savings from an early approach to better coordinating treatment of patients at roughly $385 million over two years. The study may provide a boost to the accountable care organization model, which experienced a significant dropout rate in one of its major tests. (Young, 5/4)

Another analysis, however, finds that nearly 60 percent of Medicare payments are still based on the volume of care given rather than quality, and DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc. agrees to pay $450 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit --

Modern Healthcare: Medicare Payments Still Lean Toward Volume, Not Value
Of the $360 billion in payments Medicare made to providers in 2013, 58% continued to flow through traditional fee-for-service models with no regard for quality or outcomes, according to a new analysis by the employer-backed Catalyst for Payment Reform. HHS recently announced ambitious targets to accelerate the government's move to value-based models, such as accountable care organizations and bundled payments. (Rice, 5/4)

Reuters: DaVita To Pay $450M In Medicare Fraud Lawsuit On Wasted Drugs
DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc, one of the largest U.S. kidney dialysis providers, said it agreed to pay $450 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit accusing it of deliberately wasting medicines in order to receive higher Medicare payments. The lawsuit alleged that DaVita, whose largest shareholder is Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc, used larger-than-necessary medicine vials or unnecessarily spread medicine dosages across multiple treatments, knowing that Medicare would pay for what it considered "unavoidable" waste. (Stempel, 5/4)