Moving Forward with ACOs: Some Answers, More Questions

With passage of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, Congress has signaled its strong bipartisan support for accelerating the transition to alternative payment models. As policymakers contemplate the future of these models, including accountable care organizations, this study — published in the American Medical Association’s Internal Medicine journal — identified three major considerations that should be taken into account: (1) antitrust/harms of consolidation, (2) the level of risk needed to produce changes in behavior, and (3) how to manage potential conflicts between alternate payment models.

ACO News is a feature of the Medicaid Accountable Care Organization Resource Center, an online collection of tools designed to help Medicaid agencies develop and launch accountable care organizations.