Findings from Brown University in Managed Care Reported (Third-Party Convener Firms And The Rise Of Geographically Dispersed, High-Earning Medicare ACOs): Managed Care

2026 JUN 15 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Managed Care is the subject of a report. According to news originating from Providence, Rhode Island, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Accountable care organizations (ACOs), Medicare’s flagship reform to slow cost growth, were envisioned as local, clinically integrated networks of clinicians and hospitals caring for shared patients. Increasingly, third-party firms known as conveners have recruited clinicians into Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) ACOs.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Brown University, “Conveners provide capital and analytic infrastructure, but they may also strategically aggregate low-cost clinicians across large, geographically dispersed networks. Using national MSSP data from the period 2012-21, we found that the share of beneficiaries in convener-led ACOs grew from 11 percent to 23 percent. The share of beneficiaries in dispersed ACOs increased over time, rising sharply from 13 percent to 42 percent among convener ACOs. Dispersed convener ACOs earned the highest shared-savings payments ($171 per beneficiary per year), whereas local convener ACOs earned the lowest ($95), without evidence of higher-quality performance. These findings suggest that third-party conveners are reshaping the structure of the MSSP.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Policy makers should strengthen the disclosure of convener relationships and consider network definition rules to promote coordinated care in the MSSP.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Third-Party Convener Firms And The Rise Of Geographically Dispersed, High-Earning Medicare ACOs. Health Affairs, 2026;45(6):637-645.

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from Jay Shroff, Jay Shroff, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. Additional authors for this research include Adam A. Markovitz, Andrew Zhang, Hayden Rooke-Ley, Pedro L. Gozalo and Andrew M. Ryan.

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