athenaInsight May 3, 2017
As healthcare marches toward value-based care, many hopes have been pinned on Accountable Care Organizations, which take on risk-based contracts through programs like Medicare Shared Savings. But so far, it’s unclear whether ACOs have actually delivered on their goal: Reducing costs while improving quality and access for patients.
Some early studies of Medicare Shared Savings participants show improved quality but higher costs; others show improvements that are modest at best. And that tepid success underscores an uncomfortable truth: Value-based models might well be the future of healthcare, but shared savings alone is insufficient to the task.
For ACOs to reach their full potential, they will have to embrace capitation.
I realize that, by saying this, I might soon find my...