What Is An Accountable Care Organization?

Public and private Accountable Care Organizations represent a large focus of care delivery reform, yet not everyone knows what they are or how they work. They contain common characteristics and/or requirements that are building blocks for success.

• An Accountable Care Organization (ACO) is a group of healthcare providers who deliver coordinated care and chronic disease management, thereby improving the quality of care patients receive; the organization's payment is tied to achieving healthcare quality goals and outcomes that result in cost savings
• The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) created Medicare ACOs
• An ACO may include the following types of groups of providers and suppliers:
  • ACO professionals (for example, physicians and hospitals) in group practice arrangements
  • Networks of individual practices of ACO professionals
  • Joint venture between hospitals, providers and commercial payer organizations
  • Hospitals employing ACO professionals
  • Critical-­‐access hospitals, rural health centers, and federally qualified health centers
  • Other Medicare providers and suppliers as determined by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

Download this fact sheet from Greenway below to learn more.