Increasing Evidence of ACO Effectiveness

Accountable care is gaining traction in light of the changes to come with the Affordable Care Act. While most industry focus has been placed on October enrollment dates in healthcare exchanges, hospitals and physicians are increasingly joining ACOs as way to share the financial risk of keeping patients healthy. According to an article in Bloomberg News, the government foresees cost savings as much as $1.9 billion by 2015 with ACO ventures:

“We’re providing better care because we’re keeping people out of the hospital,” Kenneth Davis, president of Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York, said in a telephone interview.

Mt. Sinai has reduced emergency room visits by 54 percent among high-risk patients. Similarly, New Jersey’s Hackensack University Medical Center saved about $16 million last year on care of about 11,000 Medicare patients who are part of the hospital’s accountable-care program. And at Coastal Carolina Health Care in New Bern, North Carolina, monthly emergency room visits dropped to 340 in February from 521 in April 2012.

Read the full story here: http://bloom.bg/14wjDT0