1. How many ACOs are in the area? (1-2 sentences).
North Carolina has 30 Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) with service areas in North Carolina. Over half of the people in North Carolina live in an area served by at least one ACO.1
2. How are the ACOs structured and what services do they provide? (1 paragraph).
The ACOs are provider-led health care organizations, consisting of a group of coordinated health care practitioners. These groups of practitioners, called ACO participants come together (either newly or as continuing participants) at the beginning of each agreement period to share savings and losses. There are different types or combinations of ACO participants. The ACO participants can form joint ventures between ACO professionals and hospitals or the ACO professionals can form group practice arrangements while some form networks of individual practices of ACO professionals. Each ACO has a governing body, multidisciplinary clinical and administrative leaders as well as associated committees and committee leaders. The services provided by these ACOs range from largely primary care services to secondary and tertiary care services, including urgent/acute care, inpatient and outpatient care, long term care, skilled nursing care, home health care and hospice care. The ACOs aim at …show more content…
Some ACOs are reported as successful based on meeting their goals in increasing the quality of care they provide while controlling cost. However, these successful ACOs still face the challenge of transitioning from fee-for-service to value-based payment models amongst other problems like shortage of primary care physicians. This problem of transitioning is due largely to the challenge of setting up a fully integrated coordinated health care system while trying to simultaneously change the payment model to reward physicians based on value, efficiency, and
North Carolina has 30 Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) with service areas in North Carolina. Over half of the people in North Carolina live in an area served by at least one ACO.1
2. How are the ACOs structured and what services do they provide? (1 paragraph).
The ACOs are provider-led health care organizations, consisting of a group of coordinated health care practitioners. These groups of practitioners, called ACO participants come together (either newly or as continuing participants) at the beginning of each agreement period to share savings and losses. There are different types or combinations of ACO participants. The ACO participants can form joint ventures between ACO professionals and hospitals or the ACO professionals can form group practice arrangements while some form networks of individual practices of ACO professionals. Each ACO has a governing body, multidisciplinary clinical and administrative leaders as well as associated committees and committee leaders. The services provided by these ACOs range from largely primary care services to secondary and tertiary care services, including urgent/acute care, inpatient and outpatient care, long term care, skilled nursing care, home health care and hospice care. The ACOs aim at …show more content…
Some ACOs are reported as successful based on meeting their goals in increasing the quality of care they provide while controlling cost. However, these successful ACOs still face the challenge of transitioning from fee-for-service to value-based payment models amongst other problems like shortage of primary care physicians. This problem of transitioning is due largely to the challenge of setting up a fully integrated coordinated health care system while trying to simultaneously change the payment model to reward physicians based on value, efficiency, and