CMS is announcing the availability of a new accountable care organization (ACO) initiative to better coordinate care in rural and underserved areas as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
 
The new ACO Investment Model is providing up to $114 million in upfront investments in infrastructure and redesigned care processes to up to 75 ACOs across the country to help them better coordinate care, says CMS in a press release. CMS will recover these payments through an offset of an ACO’s earned shared savings.
 
Eligibility is targeted to ACOs who joined the Medicare Shared Savings program in 2012, 2013, 2014 and to new ACOs joining the program in 2016, CMS says. The application deadline for organizations that started in the Shared Savings program in 2012 or 2013 will be December 1, 2014. Applications will be available in the summer of 2015 for ACOs that started in the Shared Savings Program in 2014 or will start in 2016.  
 
For more information on the ACO Investment Model, visit: http://innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/ACO-Investment-Model/