Health Care Reform: ACOs and Developments in Coordinated Care Delivery, Shared Savings and Bundled Payments

From the moment of its inception, the recently enacted federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act generated significant interest in a new form of integrated delivery system known as an accountable care organization (ACO). The Act specifically creates a separate ACO demonstration project within the Medicare Program. The Act also provides for the implementation of several other coordinated care demonstration programs, as well as the creation of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, a new entity within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that has the authority to test proposed methods of coordinated care delivery.