Doctors Say No to Accountable Care Organizations
Just over a month ago, top officials released long-awaited draft regulations for “accountable care organizations,” networks of doctors and hospitals that would collaborate to keep Medicare patients healthier and share in the savings with taxpayers….
But in an unusual rebuke, an umbrella group representing premier organizations such as the Mayo Clinic wrote the administration Wednesday saying that more than 90 percent of its members would not participate, because the rules as written are so onerous it would be nearly impossible for them to succeed.
“It’s not just a simple tweak, it’s a significant change that needs to be made,” said Donald Fisher, president of the American Medical Group Association, which represents nearly 400 large medical groups around the country providing care for roughly 1 in 3 Americans. Its members, including the Cleveland Clinic, Intermountain Healthcare in Utah, and Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania, had been seen as the vanguard for accountable care.
WOW. This is a body blow.
Just glancing at the hundreds of pages of regulations made me wonder how any hospital or physician group could possibly know what was required of them.
I wonder what affect this will have moving forward.
This snipit does not state what the issues are. Pablum.
Erik, what this means is that Obama Care has no plan to control costs and make the system more efficient –especially in Medicare. So the $500 billion plus reduction in Medicare spending that is planned will result in reduced care and reduced access to care for the elderly and the disabled.
You call that pablum?????
If the government can force citizens to buy health insurance, they can force doctors to participate in ACOs.
The idea of ACO’s makes sense (sort of…). But, I think the regs are going to be the death nail to the concept. It is too complicated to adhere to all of those standards.