CMS Rates Duke’s Accountable Care Organization Highly for Quality, Costs

DURHAM, N.C. – Duke’s accountable care organization received a 96.88% quality score in the most recent assessment from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

In addition to the quality rating, the provider network — known as Duke Connected Care, or DCC — generated significant value for Medicare, reducing costs for its Medicare population by 7.8% and saving its Medicare population $23 million in 2020. In the last four years, DCC’s value-based, high-quality programs have resulted in over $71 million in savings for its Medicare population.

The CMS performance results are determined by factors such as patient experience, care coordination, disease prevention and outcomes for patients with chronic disease. Cost efficiency is a measure of how well the organization provides care for its Medicare beneficiaries throughout the year.

“In 2020 there were extraordinary challenges in healthcare,” said Dev Sangvai, M.D., executive director of DCC. “Duke Connected Care’s continued dedication to delivering high quality, cost-effective care — even in the midst of a global pandemic — is a testament to our vision of delivering personalized and precise care through a seamlessly integrated health network.”

DCC, a physician-led clinically integrated provider network, is focused on improving the regional delivery of health care. Comprised of health care providers from Duke clinics and hospitals, as well as community practices across the region, DCC coordinates efforts across its clinical network to improve the quality of health care and address the challenge of rising health care costs. 

Duke Connected Care is a Track III Medicare accountable care organization — one of the oldest in North Carolina — and demonstrates Duke Health’s foresight in establishing capabilities required to advance health outcomes over the long term.

“We are proud of the work we do to improve quality and lower costs for our Medicare beneficiaries,” Sangvai said. “Through Duke Connected Care’s integrated network of providers, we’ve been able to deliver meaningful results that have impacted the lives of our patients and the community that we serve.”

 

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