Listen now (20 mins) | Listen Now As a follow up to my April 1st conversation with Jim Gera concerning bundled payments, during this podcast Dr. Richard Morel discusses Medicare's other major payment reform program, Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), or WESTMED Medical Group's three year experience as a Track 1 ACO. The Medicare ACO program is a creation of the 2010 Accountable Care Act and participation in the program began in 2012. Currently, there are 434 ACOs (over 90 percent participating in the "no risk" Track 1) caring for approximately 7.5 million Medicare beneficiaries. The program to date has been a mixed success. After two performance years (2013 and 2014) only 25 percent of participants have been successful, i.e., have earned shared savings. (Performance year three or 2015 performance will be made known this September.) CMS is currently in the process of revising how the agency calculates an ACO's reset financial benchmark. It is anticipated these changes will improve program performance, or improve both provider interest in participating (or continuing to participate) in the program and participant success in earning shared savings.