Launch of ‘ACO Watch’
Welcome to ‘ACO Watch‘. With the first official ACO to be so anointed shortly by the regulatory apparatus in Washington, DC and/or Baltimore, we thought there might be a place to monitor, track, educate, inform and perhaps even entertain as we witness the ramp-up for the ACO indusry – staggered as it may be.
Opening post is pasted below:
Welcome to ‘ACO Watch’ – keeping a pulse on the race!
October 5th, 2010 § 1 Comment
With the March passage of the ‘Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the ‘follow the money’ floodgates are once again opening for hospitals, physicians, integrated delivery systems, health plans, and consultants. This time, instead of migrating ‘HMO lite’ (neither staff nor group model) platforms into mainstream medicine via IPAs, we’re now talking about their ‘new and improved’ successors broadly cast as ‘Accountable Care Organizations aka ‘ACOs’.
Some call it ‘managed care 2.0′, while the more cynical among us envision it as the full employment act for consultants, and health care lawyers, shopping a not ready for prime time, if not fundamentally flawed ‘business model’.
Given the high level of interest in these ostensible quality promoting, while cost restraining entities, the staggered implementation timeline in general, the ACO January 1, 2012 fuse in particular, and the broad brush framework intentionally reflected in PPACA, we thought it a good idea to keep a pulse on the ramp up to the highly anticipated ‘go live’ date.
We welcome your interest and contributions to this conversation.
Please check out ACO Watch or updates, guest posts, news, conferences and webinars that may be useful to you!
A "HealthTweep" Pulse Check 
[…] HMOs, version 2.0. Creating an ACO requires a lot of changes to the way providers operate. We’ll see if they end up being successful, but they will be a hot […]
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December 14, 2010 at 7:43 AM
The cynical in me thinks that fundamentally, ACO’s are no different than IPA’s or HMO’s. I hope I’m wrong. But we shall see.
@pediatricinc
Brandon
October 13, 2010 at 7:31 AM
Thanks Brandon! I share your skepticism; however, remain optimistic that PPACA affords enough discretionary room for Sebelius to invite players at the margins of both ‘patient centered medical homes’, and what constitutes a ‘qualified’ health plan to gain consideration, and model both innovative payment/organizational design alternatives.
We shall see if the battleships and aircraft carriers dominate this picture, or whether the ‘tinkerers’ in the mix also garner some attention!
acowatch
October 13, 2010 at 11:01 AM
I see this a “Trickle Down to the Patient.”
Yes it is a Get in line for high employment for the attorneys and consultants.
Patients as usual get hind teat.
Teresa Masters
October 8, 2010 at 8:26 PM