New Hospitals and Health care providers join the Affordable Care Act initiative

Last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services made the announcement that 121 new participants joined the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) initiative designed to improve the quality of healthcare offered to beneficiaries while lowering overall costs.

According to the Department of Health and Human service (HSS) Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell, ““Americans will get better care and we will spend our health care dollars more wisely because these hospitals and providers have made a commitment to change how they do business and work with patients,… We are moving Medicare and the entire healthcare system toward paying providers based on the quality, rather than the quantity of care they give patients. The three new ACO initiatives being launched today mark an important step forward in this effort.”

These ACOs that we are talking about are groups of doctors and hospitals that join forces to work together on an aligned plan for patient care, information sharing, and putting the patient first. The wondrous thing is that these ACOs are not compensated on tests or procedures, rather by the success of the treatment that is administered.

Many American can breathe a sigh of relief, especially those that have had the unfortunate experience of getting ill and having to be transferred from hospital to doctor’s office, while going through repetitive tests and evaluation, ultimately care that is far from coordinated.

So, with this announcement ACOs are now represented in 49 U.S. states. It looks like there is something to the Affordable Care Act after all.