Commercial Insurers Continue To Position The Value of ACOs
With value-based arrangements established through ACOs in full swing, commercial insurers are continuing to work aggressively to move providers in this direction. According to top executives at leading insurers and analysts who follow the value-based health care industry, value based care can potentially offer insurers and providers with a huge advantage in the market.
According to Leavitt Partners LLC Director of Research, David Muhlestein, “We expect continued experimentation, with insurance plans really pushing these programs onto providers,…I think that we’re now just beyond pure experimentation,”.
But some believe that this expansion may not be easy. “Stakeholders have to overcome longstanding historical bitterness,” exclaimed Erik Johnson, vice president for network and population health consulting at Optum, Inc. According to him, many of the big payers are very much committed to the ACO concept but they are carefully looking at the impact of Medicare and want to follow in a more careful way that is more specific to local markets. He cited Inova Healthcare’s partnership with Aetna, in northern Virginia, as evidence.
One this is evident, the success of ACOs has been difficult to ignore. We are beyond the testing phase and the question is no longer “if” but “how” and “when”. Luckily there has been a lot learned from the significant amount of providers that have transitioned to value-based care.
