“ We can't sustain a system that rewards how much is done to patients instead of how much is accomplished for patients. The affordable care act will help us pay for quality and outcomes, not volume, with innovative tools such as bundled payments, incentives for hospitals that prevent readmissions, and accountable care organizations In which healthcare providers who work in teams deliver better care with lower costs.”  Donald M. Berwick CMS Administrator September 3, 2010 Op-ed in the Washington Post

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For more information about our Healthcare Reform Services and Accountable Care Organizations, please contact us: Phone: 267.256.0726 or click here to email

Accountable Care Organizations
Health reform legislation authorizes the Medicare program to contract with accountable care organizations (ACOs) through a Shared Savings Program. These networks of physicians and other providers that organized to work together to improve the quality of healthcare services and reduce costs for a defined patient population are also gaining popularity among non-Medicare payers. As momentum builds around ACOs, providers that plan for and begin to develop ACO models now will be better positioned to compete effectively in the emerging healthcare market and weather declines in Medicare reimbursement as well as expected decreases in hospital admissions over the next decade.

TRG can assist your hospital and physician groups that are interested in exploring the ACO concept further. With no singular approach to structuring an ACO, TRG can help your organization explore the available options and work with your leadership to design an organizational structure that is most appropriate to put in place and develop given the unique circumstances of the organization. For those that elect to move forward, we offer implementation planning to help prepare your organization to accept increasing levels of accountability and financial risk for a population’s health across the continuum of care, including specialized capabilities in care coordination planning and optimization.