Accountable care organizations

An ACO is a group of doctors, hospitals and other providers that work together.* The goal is to help people with Original Medicare patients get high-quality care. Your doctors share information about your care, which helps you get the right care at the right time. 

In turn, this helps to: 

• Keep you healthy and out of the hospital
• Improve your care and lower costs 

If your care is better and the cost of your care goes down, Medicare saves money. When that happens, the ACO gets a share of those savings.

You don’t sign up for an ACO. If the doctor who offers most of your care participates in the ACO, you’ll be part of that ACO. Your doctor or the ACO should tell you about this and what it means for your care.

As someone with Original Medicare, you can see any health care professional who accepts Medicare. This means you can see doctors who are part of ACOs and doctors who are not part of ACOs. 

The Shared Savings Program is Medicare’s national ACO program. As of January 2022, there are almost 500 Medicare ACOs nationwide. They are expected to serve more than 11 million people with Original Medicare in 2022.** 

The goal of Medicare ACOs is to make sure that people with Original Medicare get the right care at the right time. All ACOs must post a public report every year.

For general questions or more information about Medicare Shared Savings Program ACOs, visit medicare.gov or call  1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227). TTY users should call  1-877-486-2048.