Totally accountable care organizations, or TACOs, represent an aspirational vision for a health care system where all physical health, behavioral health, long-term services and supports (LTSS), social services, and elements of public health are integrated for targeted high-need populations. Ideally, these activities would be reimbursed under a global payment to align financial incentives and reduce costs.

The idea behind this new breed of ACO arose from discussions in the Center for Health Care Strategies’ (CHCS) Complex Care Innovations Lab. Several of the participants, including Hennepin Health in Minnesota and the Camden Coalition of Health Care Providers, are pursuing more robust ACO models that push accountability beyond just medical care.

Learn more from our fact sheet and a January 2014 Health Affairs blog by CHCS’ Stephen Somers and Tricia McGinnis that outlines emerging opportunities in Medicaid for Totally Accountable Care Organizations, or TACOs. See excerpt and link to full post below.


HEALTH AFFAIRS BLOG: Broadening the ACA Story: A Totally Accountable Care Organization

Amid the bumpiness of Obamacare’s widely publicized technical launch, some in the media started taking the opportunity to laud the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) largely untold story in reforming our “overpriced, underperforming health care system.” The New York Times’ Bill Keller and Harvard health economist David Cutler, writing in the Washington Post, reported that progress was being made on multiple fronts in re-orienting the system to pay “for the value, not the volume, of medical care.” They pointed to penalties for hospital readmissions; the use of bundled payments; the development of Medicare and commercial accountable care organizations (ACOs); and a slowdown in health care cost growth at least partially attributable to these changes.

Within state-run Medicaid programs, a parallel phenomenon has been taking shape — the creation of ACOs tailored to the care needs of Medicaid’s beneficiaries, many of whom have multiple chronic health and social challenges. While ACOs for the broad range of Medicaid beneficiaries will be similar to the ACOs that already exist in the Medicare and commercial insurance sector, a new breed of Totally Accountable Care Organizations — TACOs — offer the potential to push accountability for Medicaid populations, including those with complex needs, to a new level. “Totally” refers both to the expectation that these organizations will be responsible for services beyond just medical care (for example, mental health, substance abuse treatment and other social supports), as well as the aspiration that these organizations will assume accountability for all associated costs of care, ultimately, through global payment mechanisms.

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