Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP)
MSSP is a CMS Alternative Payment Model that allows groups of providers organized as ACOs to share in savings when they keep total Medicare spending below established benchmarks while meeting quality performance standards across 23 quality measures.
What is MSSP?
The Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP), authorized under Section 3022 of the Affordable Care Act, allows Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) to share in Medicare savings when they reduce spending below a benchmark while meeting quality standards. Two participation tracks exist: BASIC (a glide path from one-sided shared savings to two-sided risk over six years, sharing up to 50% of savings) and ENHANCED (two-sided risk from year one, sharing up to 75% of savings with greater downside risk). Benchmark spending is calculated from historical ACO spending plus regional trend adjustments. ACOs must exceed a minimum savings rate (MSR) before any shared savings are generated. Quality performance across 23 measures — spanning care coordination, preventive health, patient experience (CAHPS), and at-risk populations — affects the shared savings rate. More than 500 ACOs covering 11 million+ Medicare beneficiaries currently participate in MSSP.
Why It Matters for Healthcare Analytics
MSSP success depends on knowing your per-beneficiary-per-month cost trajectory relative to your benchmark, identifying high-cost attributed patients before spending escalates, and maintaining strong quality measure performance. A single percentage point improvement in quality scoring can meaningfully shift the shared savings rate. Analytics infrastructure for ACO management is not optional — it is the central mechanism by which savings are identified and protected.
How Vizier Tracks MSSP
Upload your attributed patient data and claims export, then ask "Which of our attributed beneficiaries are in the top decile of spend this quarter?" — Vizier surfaces cost outliers, tracks all 23 quality measures simultaneously, and compares your per-beneficiary cost to benchmark without requiring a dedicated ACO analytics platform.