Winchester Community Accountable Care Organization (WinACO)

Winchester Community Accountable Care Organization (WinACO) was established in 2013 and is now one of the 333 Shared Savings Program in the country that serves Medicare beneficiaries with the goal to continually advance in providing high-quality health care.

Medicare ACOs are groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers, who come together voluntarily to provide coordinated high quality care to their Medicare patients. The goal of coordinated care is to ensure that patients, especially the chronically ill, get the right care at the right time, while avoiding unnecessary duplication of services and preventing medical errors. When an ACO exceeds quality and financial thresholds – demonstrating achievement of high-quality care and wiser spending of health care dollars – it is able to share in the savings generated for Medicare.

In 2014, 20 Pioneer and 333 Shared Savings Program ACOs generated more than $411 million in savings, which includes all ACOs savings and losses. The results also show that ACOs with more experience in the program tend to perform better over time.

Location/Primary Contact
Winchester Community Accountable Care Organization
41 Highland Avenue
Winchester, MA 01890

Administrative Contact – Beth Haubner
WinchesterCommunityACO@winhosp.org
781-756-2901

Composition
Winchester Hospital, Winchester Physician Associates, Inc., Stoneham Medical Group, LLC., Family Care Center, PC., Billerica Family Physicians, Caring For All, PC., and William Zucker, M.D. are participants in the Winchester Community Accountable Care Organization under a provider agreement entered into by each of the entities.

Participants

• Winchester Hospital
• Winchester Physician Associates, Inc.
• Stoneham Medical Group, LLC
• Family Care Center, PC
• Fathyeh Marvasti, MD
• Caring for All, PC
• William Zucker, M.D.

Leadership

• Governing Body

  • Dale Lodge, President, WinACO participant representative, Winchester Physician Associates, Inc.
  • Matthew Woods, Treasurer, WinACO participant representative, Winchester Hospital
  • Joel Solomon, MD, Clerk, WinACO participant representative, Winchester Physician Associates, Inc.
  • Richard Iseke, MD, Chief Medical Officer, WinACO participant representative, Winchester Hospital
  • Martha McCarty MD, Quality Officer, WinACO participant representative, Winchester Physician Associates, Inc.
  • Najmuddin Patwa, MD, WinACO participant representative, Stoneham Medical Group, LLC
  • Salvador Albanese, MD, WinACO participant representative, Winchester Physician Associates, Inc.
  • Harris Ghaus, MD, WinACO participant representative, Winchester Physician Associates, Inc.
  • Mary Sweeney, WinACO participant representative, Winchester Hospital
  • Kathy Schuler, RN, WinACO participant representative, Winchester Hospital
  • James Young, Medicare beneficiary representative

• Committees and Key Leadership Personnel

  • Quality Committee:  Martha McCarty, MD and Catharine Robertson, Co-Chairs
  • Compliance Committee:  Harris Ghaus, MD and Catharine Robertson, Co-Chairs
  • Finance Committee: Joel Solomon, MD and Matthew Woods, Co-Chairs
  • Network Development Committee: Richard Iseke, MD, Chair

Click here to view the WinACO organization chart.

Amount of Shared Savings/Losses

• Performance Year 1 (2013): Generated $5.82M in shared savings
  
• Performance Year 2 (2014): Generated $4.94M in shared savings
  
• Performance Year 3 (2015): TBD

How Shared Savings Are Distributed
Up to 50 percent of the ACO portion of shared savings to “Reinvestment Fund” (up to 66 percent of this may be used to reimburse any participant for infrastructure funds).  The remainder will be distributed among participants. 

Reinvest in infrastructure:  50 percent

• Up to 66 percent of this may be used to reimburse any participant for infrastructure funds
• Remaining will be distributed among participants. 

Distribution to ACO Participants:  50 percent

Quality Performance Results

To find ACO data, visit the Physician Compare website and click on the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Quality Data link under Additional Information. The link will take you to a page where you can search by specific ACO name or by browsing an index. You can also reach Winchester Community ACO page directly by clicking here.

For more information on how to interpret scores on the above quality performance measures, click here. 

On December 18, CMS added new quality data to the Physician Compare website, in accordance with its public reporting authority, and public reporting requirements for the Shared Savings Program. The data include:

• Performance rates on 4 Group Practice Reporting Option (GPRO) measures in the 2013 reporting period for: 214 Shared Savings Program ACOs; 23 Pioneer ACOs; and 139 large group practices —D M-15, DM-13, DM-16, and CAD-7.
• Performance rates on 4 Patient/Caregiver Experience measures from the CAHPS for ACOs survey in the 2013 reporting period: ACO #1, ACO #2, ACO #3, and ACO #5.

More Information about Accountable Care Organizations

For general questions or additional information about Accountable Care Organizations, please visit Medicare's website or call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) - TTY users should call 1-877-486-2048.