Headquarters of NYC Health + Hospitals.

A Health Affairs blog entry looks at how the  huge safety-net system NYC Health +Hospitals has built a highly successful Accountable Care Organization   since 2012 to participate in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). Indeed, the authors report that NYC Health + Hospitals’ ACO has cut costs to Medicare by more than $31 million and generated $14 million in shared savings payments. The organization has cut costs by  4-12 percent  each year compared to benchmarks, and, they write, is New York City’s   only ACO to earn shared savings each year in MSSP.

To help achieve this success,  it collected  claims data to track the histories of 12,000 Medicare patients, many of whom are dual-eligible with Medicaid. It then used that information to chart future  care.

The data  suggested that the ACO should  focus on the chronically ill needing complex care, and less on overuse of healthcare services.

The authors wrote that  NYC Health + Hospitals  is applying the lessons learned to other populations,  particularly Medicaid and uninsured patients.