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Accountable Care Organizations Update
November 29, 2011
Presented by the Mississippi Hospital
Association
Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) theoretically help physicians, hospitals, and other health care providers improve methods for Medicare patients. ACOs were established under the recent rules for the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act (PPACA) by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), on March 31, 2011. Its purpose is to develop motivation for health care providers to collaborate to care for an individual patient throughout multiple care environments-including doctor's offices, hospitals, and long-term care facilities. It is not mandatory that patients are providers take part in an ACO.
ACOs that reduce growth in health care expenses while reaching performance requirements on quality of care and making patients a top priority will be rewarded by the Medicare Shared Savings Program. HHS projects that providers that take part in ACOs could assist up to 5 million patients and that the model could save $906 million in the course of 3 years for the Medicare program. Despite these benefits, this new health care delivery model could receive a considerable amount of investigation from the nation's top federal agencies, many clinical-measure requirements, downside risk, and skepticism for success.
This presentation will address what encompasses an ACO, where we are, and where we may be going.
If you have any questions about the topic of this presentation, please contact Barney Hebert at barney.hebert@horne-llp.com
For information on this presentation, contact the Mississippi Hospital Association at 800.289.8884.
