Saved U.S. health system $5 million in 2014

When the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued their 2014 quality and financial performance results in August, an accountable care organization (ACO) formed by Johns Hopkins achieved a perfect score for quality reporting.

The Johns Hopkins Medicine Alliance for Patients, or "JMAP," reported on all 33 quality measures. A perfect quality reporting score is an indication that the ACO is able to provide timely, complete and appropriate information to CMS regarding each of the requisite ACO quality measures.

JMAP is a Medicare Shared Savings Program ACO with nearly 2,900 providers covering 37,000 Medicare beneficiaries. During 2014, JMAP saved U.S. taxpayers more than $5 million.“During our first 18 months we enhanced care coordination services for more than 2,000 beneficiaries and launched a significant effort to improve urgent access to specialty care, provide population-based pharmacy services and promote quality improvement in care delivery, among other things,” said Patricia MC Brown, senior vice president of Managed Care and Population Health for Johns Hopkins Medicine.  “JMAP is serving as a catalyst for broader transformation within Johns Hopkins Medicine.”

The program is one of 333 Medicare Shared Savings Program ACOs across the United States that together saved a total of $411 million in 2014.

While JMAP's $5 million savings did not qualify Johns Hopkins for a bonus payment, the program's leadership was enthusiastic about the results.

“We are so pleased with the progress of JMAP," said Patricia MC Brown. "The extraordinary effort put forth by our participating providers in concert with our management team resulted in a perfect score and has set the stage for the next step of quality performance." 

Medicare ACOs are groups of doctors, hospitals and other health care providers who unite to provide coordinated high-quality care to their Medicare patients. The goal of coordinated care 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. When an ACO exceeds quality and financial thresholds – demonstrating achievement of high-quality care and wiser spending of health care dollars – it is able to share in the savings generated for Medicare.

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