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Commercial ACOs May Find Footing Where CMS Slips
Methodist Health had just announced its intention to partner with Texas Health Resources on an ACO-like system. The two are by-passing the CMS ACO program.
Mansfield said then that he thought ACOs would be a work in progress for years to come as hospitals, physicians and health plans develop the system that works best for them. "I think the ACO concept is a very valid construct that holds the most promise for us to be able to improve the value of healthcare in America of anything I've seen in my career but it's just a concept. We've got to tweak it until we get the methodology right."
I remember thinking then that Don Berwick should be having sleepless nights over the CMS model for ACOs because all of these stakeholders were going out and forming their own models to achieve the triple aim.
Hey wait a minute. The triple is alive and well! The stakeholders are just pursing it on their own terms. All of the talk about ACOs has really focused healthcare right where Berwick has always wanted it to be: patient centered care coordination.
Does it really matter if it's achieved through a Medicare model or a commercial model?
See Also:
Impact Analysis: Leaders Respond to Proposed ACO Regs
FTC, DOJ Open ACO Antitrust Guidelines to Public Comment
ACO Creation Driven by Commercial Market
Norton, Humana Commercial ACO Notches Cost Savings
Margaret Dick Tocknell is a reporter/editor with HealthLeaders Media.
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Comments are moderated. Please be patient.
kosos (9/1/2011 at 12:22 PM)
It's interesting to consider how things have evolved since the release of those regulations last April. I think they were a good starting point for even better ideas to develop; they got the conversation started, so to speak. John Nackel gave a nice perspective on some of his ideas for an ACO alternative here: http://ignite.optuminsight.com/our-experts/opening-the-door-to-reform/ He speaks to the idea that all stakeholders, including patients, need to be equally engaged toward population health. Patients cannot be passive participants in their health care anymore. But are physicians willing to listen?