Discussion Board

Accountable Care Organizations

MAJDA

ACCOUNTABLE CARE ORGANIZATION

An Accountable care organization is a policy initiative by healthcare providers. The aim of the organization is to manage healthcare for a defined set of patients i.e. Medicare beneficiaries. The organization is responsible for patients care through all levels, quality of care and the costs incurred. ACOs use alternative payment methods such as capitation.

The healthcare system was observed to be in disarray previously, there was a misalignment of incentives for the chronically ill patients CITATION SMS10 \l 1033 (SM Shortell, 2010 ). It observed a lack of interaction, lower quality, higher costs, and lower satisfaction. The advent of ACOs developed an integrated medical care system by bringing together doctors, healthcare staff and patients in the healthcare delivery.

The chronically ill patients lack understanding, therefore, the healthcare system is now connecting the dots for them including the healthcare and cost involved. The ACOs have recently emerged successful, in reducing admissions and saving time and money. The accountable care organizations work to ensure a reduction in medical care costs, and quality for patients throughout all levels of medical care CITATION Dav15 \l 1033 (David J. Nyweide, 2015). They plan and allocate resources to reduce payments. ACO’s also guarantee reliability through a significant reduction in medical errors, quality, and performance in healthcare service. This helps in providing savings through efficient health care delivery for improvements.

The implementation and adoption of the Accountable Care Organizations has become essential because they save costs and money. The money saved can be further allocated to research initiatives, better equipment and making improvements in the healthcare delivery CITATION Ell10 \l 1033 (Elliott S. Fisher, 2010). ACOs encourage a system of transparency. They also save time which benefits the patient from the duplication of tests and diagnosis, the allocated medical team is better aware of the patient’s needs CITATION Ell10 \l 1033 (Elliott S. Fisher, 2010). With the ACOs the patients are not limited to certain procedures, they are open to taking treatment as per their choices. It has made patient management more efficient with effectively high quality of healthcare CITATION SMS10 \l 1033 (SM Shortell, 2010 ). Hence it can be concluded that the Accountable care systems are more feasible and better in quality for both the patients and the healthcare organizations.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY David J. Nyweide, W. L. (2015). Association of Pioneer Accountable Care Organizations vs traditional Medicare fee for service with spending, utilization, and patient experience. JAMA, 2152-2161.

Elliott S. Fisher, S. M. (2010). Accountable Care Organizations; Accountable for What, to Whom, and How. Jama, 1715-1716.

SM Shortell, L. C. (2010 ). How the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation should test accountable care organizations. Health Affairs; WEIGHING THE IMPACT OF HEALTH REFORM, 7.