The Physician's Place in the ACO

This is a nice, thoughtful piece by Philip Betbeze today in HealthLeaders Media... "The Physician's Place in the ACO"

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"ACOs will include confederations of doctors, specialists, and hospitals working together to administer payments, determine quality and safety benchmarks, measure performance, and distribute shared savings, according to a June 2010 report from the American Hospital Association. Still, as we enter a four-year transition into new payment methodologies on which long-term strategic decisions must be made, organizations are left with making little more than educated guesses about how they might become an ACO.

Amid all this uncertainty, one thing does seem certain: The physician will play a key part—perhaps the key part—in whether such organizations are ultimately successful at removing waste from the healthcare payment system."

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I encourage everyone to read this article and stay up to date with this important topic. It remains to be seen how the ACO movement will unfold and what role Beacon IPA will play. But although there is a great bit of uncertainty, there is also the potential for a great opportunity.