Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are a new model for integrated health care delivery created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. They allow a group of hospitals and providers to jointly contract with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to provide care to a population of Medicare enrollees in an environment that rewards cost-efficiency through shared savings so long...

Key Findings. (1) Medicare Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) operate in non-metropolitan counties in every U.S. Census Region. (2) 79 Medicare ACOs operate in both metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties. (3) Medicare ACOs operate in 16.7% of non-metropolitan counties. (4) 9 ACOs operate exclusively in non-metropolitan counties, including at least 1 in every U.S. Census Region.

Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are networks of providers that assume risk for the quality and total cost of the care they deliver. Public policymakers and private insurers hope that ACOs will achieve the elusive "triple aim" of improving quality of care, improving population health, and reducing costs. The model is still evolving, but the premise is that ACOs will accomplish these aims b...

This brief updates Brief No. 2014-3 and explains changes in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Accountable Care Organization (ACO) regulations issued in June 2015 pertaining to beneficiary assignment for Medicare Shared Savings Program ACOs. Overall, the regulatory changes are intended to (1) encourage ACOs to participate in two-sided risk contracts, (2) increase the likelihood ...

Many observers view accountable care organizations (ACOs), created by the Accountable Care Act, as the current health care reform version of managed care. A payment and care delivery model, ACOs were created to coordinate health care delivery among providers, resulting in lower overall health care costs for defined patient populations, while also meeting performance standards on quality of care...

Using a Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) approach, this paper explores which organizational forms Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) may take. A critical question about form is the amount of vertical integration that an ACO may have, a topic central to TCE. We posit that contextual factors outside and inside an ACO will produce variable transaction costs (the non-production costs of care) su...

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Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are a new model for integrated health care delivery created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. They allow a group of hospitals and providers to jointly contract with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to provide care to a population of Medicare enrollees in an environment that rewards cost-efficiency through shared savings so long...

I ever there were a crisis mo­ ment that crystallized the need for reforming the U.S. health care delivery system, this is it. The 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) promises to expand health insur­ ance coverage, a key first step toward improving health equity. But newly insured Americans will gain access to a strained, frag­ mented system that often fails to deliver effective, efficient care. Mea...