3 details for healthcare providers to know before taking on risk

Providers’ perspectives on Medicare accountable care organizations (ACOs) sharply shifted when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services overhauled the program to mandate that all participants take on downside financial risk.

“Now, they really have to know what they are doing; you can no longer fake it ‘til you make it and see what happens,” Lynn Barr, CEO of Caravan Health, said Monday at an HFMA Annual Conference session titled “Becoming Risk-Ready with Accountable Care Organizations.”

To avoid committing their organizations to an effort that is going to fail, Barr said, providers need to know several details before entering the risk arrangement.

“That fear of failure is really big out there right now,” Barr said.