An ACO or Accountable Care
Organization is a government healthcare program that aims to reduce patient’s
total cost while making the providers accountable for the quality of care
provided. The main purpose of this ACO
program is to provide better patient care leading to better care for population
that will ultimately result into slow growth in costs.
The Centre
of Medicare and Medicaid has defined some rules for the providers who want
to be a part of this healthcare program. The rules are published in October
2012. There are 33 rules divided into four categories, which are:
- Patient experience
- Preventive health
- Care coordination
- Caring for at-risk populations
Being a part of this program,
providers will be held eligible for shared savings. ACO also defines bonus
eligible providers. This serves as an incentive for the providers to keep their
costs down.
According to ACO rules,
Electronic health record is not mandatory but a performance measure. The rules
emphasize collecting and sharing data to create an integrated network of
providers, practices and other healthcare institutions. The providers who
already have qualified for meaningful use incentives will have an added
advantage in terms of performance assessment. The ACO is in implementation
phase and is expected to eliminate fragmentation from healthcare industry.
