The Payment Reform Landscape: Accountable Care Organizations

Note: In addition to Suzanne Delbanco, this post is also coauthored by David Lansky. “The accountable care organization is like a unicorn, a fantastic creature that is vested with mythical powers. But no one has actually seen one,” said former California HealthCare Foundation CEO, Mark Smith, MD, in 2010. Over the last four years, we’ve certainly seen a proliferation of unicorns and we’re now reaching the point where fantasy—at least in a handful of cases—is becoming a reality. A growing number of large employers are piloting accountable care organizations (ACOs), working through their health plan; in some cases they are doing so directly with provider systems, such as the new Boeing arrangement with Providence Health and Services, Swedish Health Services, and University of Washington Medicine and Intel’s contracting efforts in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Portland, Oregon. The large employers and other health care purchasers with whom we work -- eager, if not desperate, for solutions to contain the costs of health care and improve its quality -- are watching these first movers carefully to see if ACOs prove to be a viable strategy for improving population health and bending the cost trend. These leading purchasers intend to set the bar high. They cannot make the investment to pursue these ACO relationships if they are not assured that their populations will see meaningful, measurable gains in their health care and its affordability, as well as their health. T...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: All Categories Business of Health Care Effectiveness Employer-Sponsored Insurance Health Care Costs Health Care Delivery Health IT Health Reform Payment Quality Source Type: blogs