WellSpan Health Honored with National Award

The National Association of ACOs (NAACOS) today awarded WellSpan Health with its 2025 Excellence Award, which recognizes high-performing organizations that have demonstrated outstanding commitment to and accomplishments in value-based care by improving quality and outcomes, lowering or slowing growth of costs and increasing patient and provider satisfaction.

WellSpan Health is one of just three organizations to attain this national recognition in 2025.

"For more than a decade, WellSpan Health has set the standard in accountable care, uniting data transparency, shared accountability and community-based partnerships to deliver high-quality, value-driven outcomes," said Emily Brower, president and chief executive officer of NAACOS. "Through this commitment and leadership, WellSpan has ensured that every patient benefits from smarter, high-quality care."

The WellSpan Health Accountable Care Organization (ACO) serves more than 73,000 beneficiaries in South Central Pennsylvania. According to data released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) this year, through its ACO, WellSpan Health and its independent practice partners produced more than $36 million in savings for the federal government, partners and patients in 2024, equating to cumulative savings of nearly $75 million for Medicare in the last three years.

During 2024, WellSpan Health's ACO additionally achieved notable patient satisfaction ratings and quality outcome scores related to screenings and therapies. Specifically, its ACO-attributed patients received timely breast cancer screenings at a rate better than 77% of ACOs, influenza immunizations better than 90% of ACOs and statin therapy to treat cardiovascular disease at a rate better than 89% of ACOs. The patients' rating of their providers scored better than 77% of ACOs.?Medicare rewards ACOs, which provide high quality care at a more affordable cost, by sharing in the savings they achieve for the Medicare Program. WellSpan Health chooses to distribute 100% of the earned shared savings it attains to its ACO participants.

Among other technological tools that contribute to WellSpan Health's successful ACO model are world class data analytics that marry claims data with clinical data to produce powerful insights about its patients and their predicted health needs, which is shared with participating practices through automated reporting.

"Few health system-led ACOs have been successful at real, true bending of the cost curve," said Dr. David Gasperack, senior vice president, WellSpan Primary Care and Population Health. "We have succeeded in reducing total cost of care in the face of an aging population, higher demand for healthcare services and health care cost inflation through the planning, shared vision and technology that links us with our ACO provider partners."