MetroHealth to Receive $5.5 million for Saving Money in its Care for Seniors

MetroHealth’s Accountable Care Organization had the largest savings rate in Ohio, at 10.2 percent below Center for Medicare and Medicaid CMS’ benchmark. As a result, MetroHealth saved the federal government $8.6 million and received $5.5 million as its share of the savings. MetroHealth is the only ACO in Northern Ohio that earned shared savings this year, and the savings rank in the top five percent in the nation and third in the nation among others with similar risk profiles.

CMS sets up quality and financial benchmarks for each ACO. For a health system to receive a portion of the savings, they have to spend less than the benchmarks in the care of its senior patients. These thresholds demonstrate achievement of high-quality care and wiser spending of health care dollars.

MetroHealth’s Population Health Innovation Institute led the cost savings and quality improvement initiatives. The team included doctors, nurses and care coordinators who focused on patient outreach and providing care in different ways.

“The important message here is that The Institute develops programs that help people stay healthy and navigate through the health system easier. The Institute focuses on process, including care coordination for every single patient enrolled in the ACO, as we operate under the principle that no patient should be left behind,” said Nabil Chehade, MD, MSBS, Senior Vice President of Population Health and Chair of the MetroHealth Care Partners ACO Governing Board.

Medicare ACOs are groups of doctors, hospitals and other health care providers who come together voluntarily to provide coordinated care to their Medicare patients. The goal is to ensure that patients, especially the chronically ill, get the right care at the right time while avoiding unnecessary duplication of services and preventing medical errors.

The MetroHealth System began MetroHealth Care Partners in January 2014. In that time, it has continued to improve its performance and has increased its portion of shared savings year over year. The performance year 2017 was the best so far since the start of MetroHealth Care Partners.