Mount Auburn Hospital’s Pioneer ACO Among Top Performers in Innovative New Program with Medicare

Medicare Accountable Care Organization saves 3.4 percent in first year of operation

Cambridge, MA – The Pioneer Accountable Care Organization of the Mount Auburn Cambridge Independent Practice Association in partnership with Mount Auburn Hospital saved 3.4 percent of its budget for patient care in the first year of operation, generating substantial savings for the federal Medicare health care program.

In 2011, Mount Auburn Cambridge IPA was named one of only 32 provider organizations across the country chosen to work with CMS to provide Medicare beneficiaries with higher quality care, while reducing growth in Medicare expenditures through enhanced care coordination.

The calendar year 2012 results announced Tuesday generated a total savings of $4.058 million thus returning $2.029 million to the IPA for this uniquely designed Pioneer ACO initiative sponsored by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Innovation Center.

“MACIPA is committed to providing the highest quality care to our patients and the health care community at large both efficiently and effectively,” said Barbara Spivak, M.D., a primary care physician who leads MACIPA as President and CEO. “The focus on value is good for patients as well as for payers as the Pioneer ACO demonstrates for the Medicare program”.

Jeanette Clough, President and CEO of Mount Auburn Hospital states, “These results demonstrate that our physicians and Hospital can work collaboratively not only in commercial population based risk contracts but also in this federal program to provide quality care more efficiently. We are pleased with our collective efforts in this first year.”

The Mount Auburn Cambridge Independent Physician Organization is a contracting and care management organization with more than 500 physicians, including approximately 150 primary care physicians, throughout the metropolitan Boston-Cambridge area and is affiliated with Mount Auburn Hospital, a regional teaching hospital and Harvard Medical School teaching affiliate, and with Cambridge Health Alliance in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Mount Auburn Hospital was founded in 1886. A teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, its mission is to deliver healthcare services in a personable, convenient and compassionate manner, with respect for the dignity of patients and their families.