ACO/REACH is a privatized Medicare program that was developed first as Direct Contracting Entities during the Trump administration by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation and later rebranded by Biden as Accountable Care Organization/ Realizing Equity, Access and Community Health. There is no Congressional oversight. Third party ACO/REACH entities can retain up to 40% of their Medicare funding for overhead and profit which will drain our Medicare Trust Fund into the pockets of private equity.
The majority of American seniors choose Traditional Medicare, which does not allow third-party entities like insurance companies to interfere with the doctor-patient relationship. The REACH program betrays the promise of Traditional Medicare by placing middlemen between seniors and the care they need … and allowing those middlemen to walk away with enormous profits.
- Seniors who had chosen traditional Medicare are enrolled in REACH entities without their full understanding or consent
- The only way for seniors to leave a REACH entity is to find a new primary care doctor
- REACH entities have a financial incentive to restrict seniors’ care and reward investors
Policy Primer: Medicare Direct Contracting & REACH
One page summary: Direct Contracting and REACH: | Protect Medicare
Learn more about ACO/REACH and join our efforts to prevent its rollout in January 2023 at our dedicated website:. Protectmedicare.net
Traditional Medicare is our nation’s most important, efficient, and popular health care program. Instead of privatizing Medicare, Congress should strengthen it by improving its benefits, eliminating costs for beneficiaries, and expanding it to cover everyone in the U.S.