Ascension Health Partners With Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to Provide Patient-Centered Care Through the Pioneer Accountable Care Organization Model

The Potential of Medicare Accountable Care Organizations to Transform the American Health Care Marketplace: Rhetoric and Reality

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] The efforts are interpreted through the lens of the accountable care organization (ACO) component of the final rule for the Medicare Shared Savings Program 8 under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Donald Berwick, the former administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) who launched its ACO program, defined ACOs as "voluntary groups of physicians, hospitals, and other health care providers that are willing to assume responsibility for the care of a clearly defined population of Medicare beneficiaries attributed to them on the basis of patients' use of primary care services."…”

Accountable Care Organizations

“…39,40 Such studies have had varied outcomes in measuring financial and health benefits to the implementation of ACOs, as well as measurements of the benefits in relation to the size and structure of the ACO. 45 Cigna Health, based in Connecticut, has implemented ACOs in several states, including Arizona, New Hampshire, and Texas. 44 Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts implemented a payment system paralleling an ACO payment organization in 2009, identified as an alternative quality contract, in which IDSs were measured for performance and financial benefit.…”

Accountable Care Organization Pathways: Diverse but Ultimately Parallel

“…7 Ascension Health Partners will use its exemplary Pioneer ACOs-Seton Health Alliance ACO (Austin, Texas) and Genesys Physician Hospital Organization (Flint, Michigan)-to teach the rest of its large system about both medical and financial management as well as strategies for engendering physician engagement around values and shared business goals. 8 Partners HealthCare is clearly desirous of encouraging specialists to share in the gains from reform and thereby avoid the zero-sum nature of delivery reforms in the 1990s. 4 This common vision is an important takeaway, for we really do face an urgent task of reining in cost growth as humanely as possible.…”