CMS made a profit from the Medicare Shared Savings Program last year as more accountable care organizations (ACOs) moved to risk-based contracts and gained experience, new federal data show. About 60 percent of the 472 Medicare ACOs generated a total of $1.1 billion in savings in 2017, according to the CMS data set released Thursday. CMS paid $780 million in bonuses to the ACOs, but the agency still scored a $313.7 million gain from the program. The announcement of substantial savings comes just weeks after CMS proposed overhauling the program, claiming it wasn’t generating enough savings. (Maria Castellucci and Virgil Dickson, Modern Healthcare)
