21 Oct As CMS Pushes ACO Growth, Healthcare Data Takes Center Stage

As CMS calls for broader participation in accountable care organizations, the ability to integrate and use reliable clinical and claims data will play an increasingly important role in improving quality, managing costs and demonstrating value.

Top Takeaways

• CMS is calling for broader ACO participation as Medicare continues its shift toward value-based care.
• The Medicare Shared Savings Program includes 511 ACOs serving 12.6 million beneficiaries in 2026.
• Reliable clinical and claims data is essential for care coordination, quality reporting and financial performance.
• IMAT Intelligence helps ACOs integrate, normalize and validate healthcare data to support population health management and measurable results.

CMS Signals Strong Support for Accountable Care

Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are gaining renewed attention as federal healthcare leaders look to expand value-based care and improve Medicare performance.

Speaking at the National Association of ACOs (NAACOS) fall conference, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz emphasized the importance of accountable care in improving quality, coordinating services and controlling costs. He also called for greater participation among physician practices and discussed how technology could help organizations adopt accountable care models, according to Medical Economics.

The push comes as ACO participation continues to grow. According to CMS, 511 organizations are participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) in 2026, up from 476 in 2025. Together, they serve approximately 12.6 million traditional Medicare beneficiaries.

MSSP ACOs also generated $2.5 billion in Medicare savings during the 2024 performance year, demonstrating the financial potential of coordinated, value-based care.

As CMS works to expand participation, ACOs face growing demands to manage patient populations, demonstrate quality improvements and control spending. Meeting those expectations requires timely access to reliable healthcare data.

Why ACO Performance Depends on Better Data

ACOs depend on information from multiple sources to understand patient needs and evaluate performance. Clinical records, claims, laboratory results and other healthcare information all contribute to a more complete picture of the populations they serve. However, integrating this information remains challenging.

Data may arrive in different formats, contain inconsistent terminology or lack important clinical details. Delays in receiving claims information can further complicate efforts to identify care gaps, track utilization and intervene before conditions worsen.

These limitations can affect an ACO’s ability to coordinate care, identify high-risk patients and accurately measure outcomes.

Improving data quality and interoperability helps organizations develop a more comprehensive understanding of their attributed populations and make better-informed decisions about where to focus resources.

Preparing for Digital Quality Measurement

Quality reporting presents another significant data challenge for ACOs. Organizations participating in MSSP must navigate evolving reporting requirements while preparing for greater use of electronic clinical quality measures and digital quality measurement.

These approaches depend on the ability to collect, standardize and validate information across different electronic health record systems and care settings.

The transition also creates opportunities to reduce manual reporting processes and improve the timeliness of performance information.

For ACOs, investments in data infrastructure can support current reporting obligations while building capabilities for more automated quality measurement and population health analytics.

How IMAT Intelligence Supports ACO Success

IMAT Solutions helps ACOs address these challenges through IMAT Intelligence, a healthcare data intelligence platform that aggregates, normalizes, validates and operationalizes clinical and claims data from disparate sources.

By bringing fragmented information together into a consistent, reliable data foundation, IMAT Intelligence helps organizations strengthen population health management, identify care gaps and support quality reporting.

The platform also enables more efficient data management, reducing the manual effort required to prepare information for analytics and operational workflows.

For ACOs evaluating their current capabilities, IMAT’s Health Data Quality Assessment can identify weaknesses in data integration, completeness, accuracy and normalization, providing a practical roadmap for improvement.

Turning ACO Growth into Better Outcomes

CMS’ continued emphasis on accountable care presents opportunities for more providers to participate in value-based payment models.

As participation expands, ACOs will need the data capabilities to understand their populations, monitor performance and demonstrate improvements in quality and cost efficiency.

IMAT Intelligence helps organizations build that foundation, making healthcare information more accessible, reliable and actionable across the care continuum.

Contact IMAT Solutions to learn how IMAT Intelligence can help your ACO strengthen data quality, streamline reporting and improve performance.

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Additional Insights 

• Why MSSP ACOs Must Rethink Data Infrastructure for APP Quality Reporting 
• Why Delaying dQM Readiness Could Cost More Than Preparing
• PODCAST: How MSSP ACOs Can Meet Clinical Quality Measure Reporting Mandates
• AI Is Moving Beyond Experimentation. MSSP ACOs Need the Data Infrastructure to Keep Up