The Hidden Dangers of Accountable Care Organizations

[Geee]

American Thinker:

While I was sitting in a conference room at a large teaching hospital waiting for a noon conference to begin, an attending physician remarked that Accountable Care Organizations would be the future of health care. He went on to give a brief overview of what they were and how they worked. All present seemed to nod their heads in understanding and appreciation of the slanted economic insight to health care that they had just garnered. But if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are established in the Affordable Care Act under a Medicare Shared Savings Program (Sec 3022). The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) defines ACOs as "groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers, who come together voluntarily to give coordinated high quality care to their Medicare patients." It further states that "[w]hen an ACO succeeds in both delivering high-quality care and spending health care dollars more wisely, it will share in the savings it achieves for the Medicare program." Translated into practical, real-world terms: when an ACO delivers care to predetermined standards and spends less health care dollars to do so, it can see a bonus. The concerning features now become who sets the standards of care and how it is possible to spend less money and provide high-quality care.