Toward High-Performance Accountable Care: Promise and Pitfalls

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) establishes a new category of health care provider—the accountable care organization (ACO)—within the Medicare program, with rules for provider participation and principles for sharing in the savings generated by this form of coordinated health care delivery. In this second blog post in a series on health care financing, we address the promise and pitfalls of ACOs, which are responsible for patients across a continuum of care, including preventive, primary, specialty, emergency, acute, and post-acute care.