ACOs: Making Sure We Learn from Experience
<p>With the proliferation of "accountable care" initiatives in both the private sector and the Medicare program, there will soon be several hundred health care organizations that have taken responsibility for a defined population of patients and are receiving financial incentives for improving care and slowing cost growth. </p><p>In a <a href="/blog/2012/acos-making-sure-we-learn-experience">new blog post,</a> Elliott Fisher, M.D., of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice and Stephen Shortell, Ph.D., of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health highlight four areas that must be carefully examined to ensure accountable care organizations, or ACOs, meet their promise: </p>
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<li>contract design </li>
<li>organization capabilities </li>
<li>impact on patients </li>
<li>impact on community-level health and costs. </li>
</ul>
<p>Fisher and Shortell detail the challenges inherent in developing common definitions and measures of a core set of contract attributes and organizational capabilities, as well as measuring and tracking ACO performance. "Success in meeting these challenges will depend on commitment by private and public stakeholders to craft a path forward that meets their interests as well as the public good," the authors say. </p>
<p>To read the complete post, visit <a href="~/link.aspx?_id=0B67ACA7A5CB453CB876F3DB59E19448&_z=z">The Commonwealth Fund Blog.</a> Also available are an interactive map of Medicare ACOs and a post with links to Commonwealth Fund case studies of organizations selected as Pioneer ACOs. </p>
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