The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the results for Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) for their 2024 Performance Year showing that 75% of these ACOs earned a total of $4.1 billion in shared savings. This is the highest amount achieved since the MSSP program began, according to the CMS Fact Sheet, “Medicare Shared Savings Program Accountable Care Organizations Performance Year 2024 Financial and Quality Results,” released August 28.

The cost saving work of these ACOs generated $2.4 billion in savings to the Medicare program, relative to benchmarks, the report says.  Physician-led ACOs continue to outperform hospital-led ACOs in generating per capita savings, which makes sense as physicians don’t have the same incentives to ensure hospital beds are filled with patients. Notably, even with all this success, 16 of the 476 ACOs incurred losses totaling $20.3 million.

In addition to the financial rewards, the ACOs are continuing to demonstrate improved quality, according to the report, especially with controlled blood pressure and A1c, and depression screenings with a follow up plan.

The Trump administration noted its focus on chronic disease management and prevention activities, and efficient use of resources as part of the MSSP ACO program. To reinforce these goals, CMS has proposed changes to the MSSP program for 2026 that would require ACOs to transition to more financial risk sooner along with other changes we outlined recently in this article.