September is Healthy Aging Month. It makes us think about how healthcare systems can better help communities stay healthy. For Accountable Care Organizations, ACO quality reporting is a big part of this. It’s not just about meeting CMS rules anymore. It’s about building systems that help patients live better lives while handling the tough requirements that come with the Medicare Shared Savings Program and ACO REACH.
As 2026 gets closer, things are getting a bit complicated. CMS wants ACOs to report on four electronic clinical quality measures for every patient, regardless of their insurance. When you add CAHPS survey results and claims data, the whole thing can feel like too much. But with the right steps, ACO quality reporting can be manageable.
Why Does This Matters More Now?
Healthcare is changing fast. What worked last year is not going to work in 2026. CMS is asking for more when it comes to digital reporting, health equity, and patient experience. For ACOs in MSSP or ACO REACH, quality scores directly affect your money. Bad performance means losing out on savings. Good performance means shared savings and better patient results.
The challenge is real. Many organizations are dealing with data from different places, trying to keep providers involved, and working hard to close care gaps before the year ends. Having a good plan makes everything easier.
Build a Strong Data System
You can’t report what you can’t measure. The biggest issue most ACO quality reporting deals with is messy data. Patient information sits in your EHR, claims systems, and other places. When you need to report on things like HbA1c control or blood pressure management, putting it all together becomes really hard.
Setting up a central data system fixes this. When you bring together EHR data, claims information, and social factors, you see the complete picture for each patient. This makes ACO quality reporting easier and helps you catch problems early.
Think about it this way. If you can see a patient’s blood sugar going up before it becomes serious, you can help them. That’s better for the patient and better for your quality scores. Organizations that organize their data have fewer errors and better results on chronic disease measures.
Help Your Providers Do Their Job
Providers are busy. They see patients all day, handle paperwork, and manage many other tasks. If you want them to track quality measures well, you need to make it easy.
Adding prompts to the EHR helps a lot. When a patient needs depression screening or breast cancer screening, the system should show it during the visit. No searching through charts. No trying to remember which measures count.
Feedback reports help too. When providers see how they’re doing on certain measures, they know where to focus. This leads to better capture rates, earlier help for patients, and less rushing at year’s end when you find data gaps.
Some organizations using this method have seen big improvements in measure completion compared to those who only check data later. That makes a difference for MIPS reporting and quality work.
Connect Money to Performance
People focus on what affects their pay. In both MSSP and ACO REACH, ACO quality reporting directly changes money outcomes. ACO REACH has equity adjustment scores that can move your quality performance by ten points either way.
When you link provider pay or shared savings to quality benchmarks, things change. Everyone starts caring about blood pressure control rates and CAHPS scores. This creates better care teamwork, steadier documentation, and stronger accountability.
It’s not about punishing low scores. It’s about recognizing the work that goes into good care. When the whole team knows their work affects the organization’s success, you get support at every level.
Focus on Patients
These measures exist for a reason. They catch problems early. Depression screenings, cancer screenings, and chronic disease management are not just boxes to check. They help people stay healthy.
Organizations that work on care navigation and patient outreach see good results. When you remind patients about screenings, help them understand their medications, and connect them with community help, your quality scores go up. More importantly, your patients do better.
Programs like Chronic Care Management give you a way to do proactive outreach. Patients get monthly check-ins beyond regular office visits. They can reach a care team any time. This naturally supports the preventive care that quality measures track.
This also helps with health gaps. When you reach underserved groups and make sure they get needed care, you improve your equity scores and make a difference in your community.
Make People Responsible
Even good plans fail without leadership support. Having measured champions works well. Specific people handle specific measures. Maybe one person manages HbA1c control while another handles CAHPS performance.
Quality committees that meet often can find problems before they get worse. When you check performance data monthly instead of yearly, you can change your approach quickly. Leadership focus matters too. When the top level treats ACO quality reporting as important, everyone else does too.
This leads to faster fixes when gaps show up, better team communication, and steady improvement over time. For MVP reporting and other registry needs, having clear ownership makes everything smoother.
Common Problems to Avoid
Even with a good plan, challenges happen. Data quality problems are probably the biggest issue. If your source data is incomplete or wrong, your ACO quality reporting will be too. Regular checks help catch these early.
Provider turnover creates gaps in documentation. New providers need training on which measures matter and how to document them correctly. Don’t assume everyone knows what to do.
Patient involvement is another challenge. You can have perfect systems and still have trouble if patients don’t show up for screenings or follow care plans. That’s why outreach and care navigation matter.
Technology changes can mess up workflows for a while. If you’re switching EHR systems or using new ACO quality reporting tools, expect a learning period and give extra support during the change.
Getting Ready for 2026
ACO quality reporting is about building better healthcare systems. When you handle it before problems happen instead of after, you create stronger care networks that help patients and communities do well.
At Prime Well Med Solutions, we know ACO quality reporting shouldn’t feel like a burden. The right tools and methods make it doable. When you have good data systems, involved providers, matching incentives, and patient-focused care, ACO quality reporting becomes what it should be. A way to measure and improve the care you already give.
The organizations that will do well in 2026 and beyond are starting now. They’re building data systems, helping their providers, reaching their patients, and creating responsibility at every level. They’re not waiting for the final rule to plan.
Whether you’re working on MIPS registry submissions or getting ready for your next quality ACO quality reporting cycle, remember, you don’t have to do this alone. With the right partner and the right approach, you can turn reporting from a compliance task into something that creates better results for everyone.
