Forbes January 8, 2020
Accountable care organizations (ACOs), a byproduct of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), were designed and deployed to better coordinate and manage the delivery of care and reduce healthcare costs to the system. Theoretically ACOs are “built” to manage patients on the care continuum to ensure that care is coordinated to deliver quality outcomes and better, lower-cost care. The care continuum would include, but is not limited to, multiple different players in healthcare, such as family practice/internal medicine clinicians, cardiologists, orthopods, hospitals, and skilled nursing facilities (SNFs).
ACOs are groups of doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers – though not necessarily in the same practice or health system (e.g., doctors employed by hospitals or different doctors from different private practices)...