UpShot Story on Medicare Spending Misses Huge Effort

The UpShot’s September 4 story “A Huge Threat to the U.S. Budget Has Receded. And No One Is Sure Why.” omits an important, growing effort to better control healthcare spending. Medicare has saved $4 trillion over projections over the last decade thanks to better management of chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, according to The Congressional Budget Office.  

To those working to improve patient care, these findings are not new. Medicare has been transforming how it pays for care for years by making doctors, hospitals, and other providers accountable for spending and quality. This is value-based care, and it is growing within Medicare, because it is generating lower costs through better care coordination and management.

Value-based care rewards providers for keeping patients healthy by coordinating care across all providers. This means doctors proactively reaching out to ensure patients receive an annual wellness visit, cancer screenings, the annual flu vaccine, and manage chronic diseases well. Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are now accountable for nearly 13 million Medicare patients and have saved Medicare more than $21 billion since 2012. Further, more than 500,000 physicians and other clinicians are bringing this culture of accountability piloted in Medicare to all patients, regardless of their health insurance type.

The growth of Medicare spending has slowed, and value-based care and ACOs are responsible for leading the transformation. Republicans and Democrats alike recognize the long-term savings value-based care brings Medicare and taxpayers. Policymakers cannot afford to take steps backward on value-based care when it still needs their support to keep momentum from recent successes going in the long term.