Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are expected to become more prevalent as implementation of the Affordable Care Act continues.

The underlying premise of ACOs is that better integrated care will be better and more economical care for patients while reducing costs for the health care system as a whole.

The New York Times takes a look at how one ACO works and the potential clinical and financial benefits it seeks to produce in this article.

The Medicare Shared Savings Program, created by the Affordable Care Act and scheduled to take effect in April, is looking to accountable care organizations (ACOs) to save money and improve the quality of care paid for with public funds.

A new health policy brief from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the publication Health Affairs takes a closer look at ACOs:  what they are, how they performed in a recent federal demonstration program, how they work, and what policy-makers hope they will achieve.  Read a summary of the policy brief and download the entire document here.

Created as a laboratory for new and better ways to improve health care and reduce health care costs, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation is one of the centerpieces of the Affordable Care Act and health care reform.

Now that the Innovation Center has been in operation for one year, the Commonwealth Fund has summarized its activities to date:  the initiatives it has launched and the range of those initiatives; the areas in which it is pursuing innovation; and how it is going about its work.

Among the areas addressed in the summary are accountable care organizations (ACOs), Medicare bundled payments, payment reform, programs for dual eligibles, and various demonstration programs.

Read this assessment, including a list of the Innovation Center’s initiatives and their current status, on the Commonwealth Fund’s blog.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a revised regulation governing the accountable care organizations, or ACOs, created under the Affordable Care Act.

CMS’s original draft of the regulation produced a considerable amount of criticism – and more than a few suggestions that health care providers would be unwilling to participate in ACOs under the terms CMS proposed.  The new version apparently allays many of the concerns that hospitals, doctors, and others expressed in response to the first draft.

For descriptions and commentary about the new rule, how it differs from the draft, and its implications for what it supposed to be an important part of the Affordable Care Act, see a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation and a blog entry on the Commonwealth Fund’s web site that includes a link to the regulation itself.

How hard will it be for hospitals to launch effective accountable care organizations (ACOs)?

ACOs are a major component of health care reform and the Affordable Care Act but represent new territory for hospitals.  Health care reformers envision ACOs as a means of achieving three goals in serving the Medicare population (and eventually, other types of patients as well):  improving the quality of care, improving the health of communities, and reducing health care costs.  Achieving these goals, however, will require an unprecedented level of cooperation and coordination among hospitals, physicians, and other providers.

Some of the obstacles hospitals will face are outlined in a new article in the Journal of the American Medical Association entitled “Implementing Accountable Care Organizations:  Ten Potential Mistakes and How to Learn From Them.”