BACKGROUND Large multispecialty physician group practices, with a central role for primary care practitioners, have been shown to achieve high-quality, low-cost care for patients with chronic disease. We assessed the extent to which informal multispecialty physician networks in Ontario could be identified by using health administrative data to exploit natural linkages among patients, physicians...

The accountable care organization (ACO) model of health care delivery is rapidly being implemented under government and private-sector initiatives. The model requires that each ACO have a defined patient population for which the ACO will be held accountable for both total cost of care and quality performance. However, there is no empirical evidence about the best way to define how patients are ...

elivery of health care services to patients is facing extreme levels of change and challenge, ushered in not just by the Affordable Care Act, but also by demands from insurers, payers and employers for improved approaches. At Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, La., the goal of our quality improvement efforts is — as always — to improve patient care. But we also want to...

“The movement to accountable care organizations and other recent trends has led to more health systems reabsorbing primary-care physicians and free-standing ambulatorycare settings back into the hospital,” Burke said in an April release announcing the program. “AAAHC saw an opportunity to improve patient care by offering a program that addresses both outpatient and inpatient hospital care and t...

Health care experts, policy makers, and patient advocacy groups have identified fragmentation of care as a major flaw in the current health care system—a flaw that has a negative effect on quality, patient outcomes, and health care costs. 1-4 A primary objective of the recently enacted Accountable Care Act (ACA) is improving care coordination.5 Two models encouraged by the ACA—patient-centered ...

Health care experts, policy makers, and patient advocacy groups have identified fragmentation of care as a major flaw in the current health care system—a flaw that has a negative effect on quality, patient outcomes, and health care costs. 1-4 A primary objective of the recently enacted Accountable Care Act (ACA) is improving care coordination.5 Two models encouraged by the ACA—patient-centered ...