1. Does the ACO experiment achieve the dual objectives of cost savings and coordination of care? Why or why not? Identify three reasons supporting your position, grounded in the literature.
I believe that the ACO experiment has the potential to provide cost saving methods and coordination of care because of the structured care patient will receive from one managed group of physicians, who can collaborate and share data, the incentives the facilities will be offered for efficient and effective care, and the quality measures that will be in place for the organization to follow. According to NPR.ORG, HHS estimates that ACOs could save Medicare up to 960 million dollars within the first three years of implementation. Also Kaiser Health News stated that all 32 Pioneer ACOs succeeded in improving quality and performed better than Medicare fee for service in 15 quality measures. In 2012, they also generated 87.6 million in the first year of the program (Kaiser).
The three ways I feel ACOs will achieve cost savings and coordination of care are by:
Cohesive and organized patient care: ACOs will provide better communication in order to streamline procedures and processes across the different HC settings, so the patient can obtain more education and information. These organizations will be able to keep costs down because they can monitor and share information responsibility between one another to ensure the patient is receiving the appropriate care. Healthcare will be more of a unit instead of different parts that need to be put together by different physicians. A primary care physician will be the contact that ties everything together for each of their patients, and monitors their progress.
Incentives: Organizations will be offered more incentives to provide efficient and effective care to their patients. The traditional fee-for-service payments charge per procedure and