ACOs Ask for Delay in Quality Benchmarking, Imply They May Withdraw

The 32 healthcare systems tapped as the first accountable care organizations (ACOs) under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act have asked the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to view certain quality measures as “reporting-only” for 2013 and delay setting benchmarks until 2014, according to a letter from the ACOs reported in a March 6, 2013, Washington Post blog post. In the absence of a change decided by April 2, 2013, the ACOs state that they will need to make “decisions regarding our ongoing participation” in the ACO program, implying that they may withdraw if the changes are not made. At issue are 19 quality benchmarks that the ACOs state have been set in the absence of sufficient data and may be unachievable.