Accountable Care Organization Implementation Experiences and Rural Participation

Costs of accountable care organization participation for primary care providers: early stage results

BACKGROUND Little is known about the impact of joining an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) on primary care provider organization's costs. The purpose of this study was to determine whether joining an ACO is associated with an increase in a Rural Health Clinic's (RHC's) cost per visit. METHODS The analyses focused on cost per visit in 2012 and 2013 for RHCs that joined an ACO in 2012 and co...

Accountable care organizations in rural America.

Key Findings. (1) Medicare Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) operate in non-metropolitan counties in every U.S. Census Region. (2) 79 Medicare ACOs operate in both metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties. (3) Medicare ACOs operate in 16.7% of non-metropolitan counties. (4) 9 ACOs operate exclusively in non-metropolitan counties, including at least 1 in every U.S. Census Region.

Sample Scenario: Building an Accountable Care Organization

 The total cost of the U.S. health care system now consumes 17 percent of its gross domestic product, a proportion significantly higher than that of any other developed nation and almost twice the median of these countries. In the U.S., hospital stays and physician charges account for two-thirds of health care spending.  In addition to high cost, the U.S. health care system suffers from quali...

Point-of-care echocardiography in the accountable care organization era.

Accountable care organization readiness and academic medical centers.

As academic medical centers (AMCs) consider becoming accountable care organizations (ACOs) under Medicare, they must assess their readiness for this transition. Of the 253 Medicare ACOs prior to 2014, 51 (20%) are AMCs. Three critical components of ACO readiness are institutional and ACO structure, leadership, and governance; robust information technology and analytic systems; and care coordina...