How to Align Payment for Medical Homes and ACOs
<p>As a promising model of health care delivery, the patient-centered medical home "can serve as a lynchpin" of accountable care organizations (ACOs), say experts in a new <a href="/publications/journal-article/2014/apr/structuring-payment-medical-homes-after-affordable-care-act">Commonwealth Fund–supported perspective</a> published by the <em>Journal of General Internal Medicine</em>. To do so, however, payment for medical homes and ACOs will require closer alignment.</p><p>In their article, Harvard Medical School's Samuel T. Edwards, M.D., and colleagues consider how current medical home reimbursement—a blend of fee-for-service payments and compensation for special services such as care coordination—could evolve to keep pace with the reforms launched by the Affordable Care Act, particularly the "shared savings" approach used by many ACOs. </p>
<p>Among the authors' recommendations: include dedicated payments in ACO contracts to support enhanced primary care services, and promote ACO investment in patient-centered medical homes through hiring more primary care providers, expanding office hours, and developing an information technology and care coordination infrastructure. </p>
<p>Read more at <a href="/publications/journal-article/2014/apr/structuring-payment-medical-homes-after-affordable-care-act">commonwealthfund.org.</a></p>