Final Regulations for the Medicare Shared Savings Program: Accountable Care

On October 20, 2011, CMS issued the final regulations for the Medicare Shared Savings Program: Accountable Care Organizations (“ACO”), in accordance with the requirements of the Affordable Care Act (“Health Reform”). The significant changes in the final regulations compared to  proposed regulations issued in March, resulted from an outpouring of over 1000 comments on the draft regulations. In addition, the DOJ and FTC issued the final version of their joint policy statement (See: policy statement) detailing how these agencies will enforce the antitrust laws in light of the ACO. The final policy includes certain antitrust “safety zones” for ACO’s.