A healthcare organization with 2 hospitals, 20 clinics, and 3 urgent care centers belong to an ACO program. They have been in the shared savings program for two years and are now eligible to move large payments to a population-based model as they have been successful in keeping costs down and have met all the CMS benchmarks set for them. What type of ACO is this?

A. Medicare Shared Savings Plan
B. Basic ACO
C. Advance Payment ACO Model
D. Pioneer ACO Model

D. Pioneer ACO Model

Explanation:

An Accountable Care Organization (ACO) is a healthcare organization that contain groups of  doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers who provide quality care and and reductions in the cost of care to medicare patients.

The pioneer ACO model is designed for doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers to create payment models that incorporate a method of risk utilization and require providers to engage in population management. It is a three year agreement with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in which during year 1 and 2, bills are provided normally with a standard fee for service and in year 3 there  is an option to put a population-based payments system in place.