What are ACO's?

The term ACO or "Accountable Care Organization, is a relatively new term that has joined the alphabet soup of heatlh care terms in the last year and despite the fact that 40% of providers do not know what an ACO actually is (Physician Sentiment Index Survey with Sermo), it appears ACOs are gaining some early notoriety in the healthcare industry.

Networks of health care providers

ACO's are networks of health care providers who are organized to coordinate and improve the care of some assigned population of patients while they also manage the overall cost of the care for that population of patients.  The Affordable Care Act established provisions for ACO's as an approach to move from the Fee For Service payment model to a more bundled/capitated or shared savings payment model.

CMS Expected To Provided Answers

While the exact for ACO's has yet to be determined, The Center of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is expected to begin providing partial answers and proposed regulations for ACO's in early 2011.  It is expected that these regulations will include a requirement for hospitals, primary care providers, specialists and ancillary services to provide some for of integrated patient care and will require these unique entities to cooperate clinically, administratively and financially. 

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