Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today congratulated Presbyterian Healthcare Services in Albuquerque on being selected to participate in an initiative made possible by the new health insurance reform law aimed at providing Medicare recipients with higher quality care while lowering health care costs through enhanced care coordination.

Presbyterian was one of 32 organizations across the country to be selected to participate in the Pioneer Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) initiative administered through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center. The new initiative provides support for organizations with recognized experience operating as ACOs – a network of primary care doctors, specialists, other healthcare provider, and hospitals that shares responsibility for providing care.

"Providing quality health care, while lowering costs, is a primary goal of the new health insurance reform law. Through this new initiative Presbyterian will participate with other health care leaders to test the effectiveness of new ways of paying for health care in this country to achieve that goal," Bingaman said.

The initiative will test the effectiveness of several innovative payment models and how they can help organizations improve health care services, work in coordination with private payers, and reduce Medicare cost growth. These payment models will allow organizations that are successful in achieving better care and lower cost growth to move away from a payment system based primarily on a fee-for-service model, towards one where payments are based on the quality of care.