Accountable Care Organization Pathways: Diverse but Ultimately Parallel

Sample Scenario: Building an Accountable Care Organization

 The total cost of the U.S. health care system now consumes 17 percent of its gross domestic product, a proportion significantly higher than that of any other developed nation and almost twice the median of these countries. In the U.S., hospital stays and physician charges account for two-thirds of health care spending.  In addition to high cost, the U.S. health care system suffers from quali...

Point-of-care echocardiography in the accountable care organization era.

Accountable care organization readiness and academic medical centers.

As academic medical centers (AMCs) consider becoming accountable care organizations (ACOs) under Medicare, they must assess their readiness for this transition. Of the 253 Medicare ACOs prior to 2014, 51 (20%) are AMCs. Three critical components of ACO readiness are institutional and ACO structure, leadership, and governance; robust information technology and analytic systems; and care coordina...

The Impact of a Home-Based Palliative Care Program in an Accountable Care Organization

BACKGROUND People with advanced illness usually want their healthcare where they live-at home-not in the hospital. Innovative models of palliative care that better meet the needs of seriously ill people at lower cost should be explored. OBJECTIVES We evaluated the impact of a home-based palliative care (HBPC) program implemented within an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) on cost and resour...

Cost saving and quality of care in a pediatric accountable care organization.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are responsible for costs and quality across a defined population. To succeed, the ACO must improve value by reducing costs while either maintaining or improving the quality of care. We examined changes from 2008 through 2013 in the cost and quality of care for Partners for Kids (PFK), a pediatric ACO serving an Ohio Medicaid popul...