Castell Among Top National Leaders in Medicare ACO Savings and Quality Performance for 2022, Marking Five Consecutive Years of Savings

Castell, Intermountain Health’s population heath subsidiary, announced that its Castell Accountable Care value-based Medicare program has generated $46.8 million in savings for Medicare in 2022 through its participation in Global and Professional Direct Contracting, which will help expand critically-needed primary care access throughout the nation.

Now known as ACO REACH (Accountable Care Organizations Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health), Castell’s savings are the second highest among all ACOs in the program.

As a result, Castell Accountable Care is sharing $20.6 million of its 2022 savings with participating primary care groups, which amid a national primary care shortage, will enable primary care groups to continue to expand access and improve quality of care for patients.

In addition to the strong financial performance, Castell was also a national leader in quality performance on the ACO REACH readmission and unplanned admissions measures, achieving the 100th and 99th percentiles, respectively.

The $46.8 million in savings marks five straight years of Castell increasing its savings contributions to the Medicare program.

Since the start of Castell Accountable Care’s participation in Medicare’s value-based care programs, the ACO has generated a total of $70.6 million dollars in savings through a continued commitment to providing high-quality, patient-focused care to over 50,000 participants in the Intermountain West.

Castell’s continued improved savings and goal to become a national leader in quality performance is the result of years of concerted efforts to improve care coordination, increase access to care, and expand proactive beneficiary outreach.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, we put an emphasis on maintaining patients’ connections to providers. These efforts resulted in Castell care coordinators making proactive outreach calls to over 37,000 patients in 2022,” said Josh Romney, MD, medical director for Castell Accountable Care. “These calls led ACO beneficiaries to schedule 7,600 additional annual wellness and primary care visits. Proactive outreach helps patients by reminding them about key aspects of their care and ensuring providers within the healthcare system can see them in a timely manner.”

In 2022 Castell’s ACO transitioned from the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) into the new Global and Professional Direct Contracting Program.

Under the new program, Castell also rolled out a health equity plan focused on improving care for underserved populations.

“We view ACO REACH as a catalyst to help healthcare systems and their providers realize the benefits of delivering value-based care,” said Jay Zerwekh, chief executive officer for Castell. “Our results demonstrate that there is a way to reduce costs while maintaining the highest levels of quality. The quality/cost puzzle is a challenge for all healthcare systems, and our results are proof that this puzzle, as difficult as it is, can be solved.”

Providers in the Castell ACO also maintained a high level of quality performance in 2022.

The providers at Intermountain Medical Group throughout Utah, Grandview Family Medicine in Provo, Utah, and Saltzer Health in Nampa and Meridian, Idaho collectively led the nation in the All-Condition Readmission quality measure and achieved the second-best performance nationally on Unplanned Admissions for Members with Multiple Chronic Conditions measure.

The ACO also works together to ensure patients receive care at the most appropriate facility, focusing on outpatient and inpatient procedures, emergency department visits, and transfers to skilled nursing facilities.

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Castell is a comprehensive health services company that helps healthcare providers, payers, health systems, and accountable care organizations achieve success in value-based care. Castell’s impactful analytic products and innovative care solutions are designed to accelerate organizations’ transition from volume to value and improve outcomes for patients while keeping costs more affordable. Castell is an Intermountain Health company.

The statements contained in this document are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of CMS. The authors assume responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the information contained in this document.

Castell, Intermountain Health’s population heath subsidiary, announced that its Castell Accountable Care value-based Medicare program has generated $46.8 million in savings for Medicare in 2022 through its participation in Global and Professional Direct Contracting, which will help expand critically-needed primary care access throughout the nation.