{"id":1357,"date":"2014-06-02T16:00:21","date_gmt":"2014-06-02T20:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/?p=1357"},"modified":"2014-06-03T15:36:39","modified_gmt":"2014-06-03T19:36:39","slug":"first-survey-of-acos-reveals-surprising-level-of-physician-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/2014\/first-survey-of-acos-reveals-surprising-level-of-physician-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"First Survey of ACOs Reveals Surprising Level of Physician Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

In spite of early concerns that hospitals\u2019 economic strengths would lead them to dominate the formation of accountable care organizations (ACOs), a new study published in the June issue of Health Affairs<\/em> reveals the central role of physician leadership in the first wave of ACOs.<\/p>\n

\"Carrie
Carrie Colla, PhD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe broad reach of physician leadership in ACOs has important implications for the future of health care reform,\u201d said Carrie Colla, PhD, lead investigator of the study. \u201cA central role for physicians in the leadership of ACOs is likely to have a powerful influence on how both physicians and patients view the ACO model.\u201d<\/p>\n

ACOs are groups of providers that are held responsible for the care of defined populations of patients. The key notion is that the providers within the ACO receive financial rewards for both improving the quality of care and reducing the growth of costs. The Affordable Care Act established this new, voluntary federal program for Medicare, and many private insurers are adopting the model. Over 600 ACOs are now operating in the U.S.<\/p>\n

In the first analysis of the National Survey of ACOs, the research team from the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice found that the majority of ACOs identified as physician led, with another third jointly led by physicians and hospitals.<\/p>\n

The study compared physician-led ACOs to other types of ACOs and found that physician-led ACOs were more likely to have comprehensive care management programs in place and advanced IT capabilities. They are also more likely to measure and report financial and quality performance at the clinician level and to provide meaningful and timely feedback to clinicians.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese findings suggest that physician leadership will be an important factor in initiatives to improve the quality and cost of care,\u201d said Mark McClellan, MD, former administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), now at the Brookings Institution. \u201cPhysician-leaders may have a leg up when it comes to working with their colleagues to identify opportunities to improve care and to measure impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nVisit TDI.Dartmouth.edu<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The study also documented the diversity of organizations participating in accountable care programs. Some ACOs are made up of only primary-care physician practices, some are multispecialty physician practices, while others are integrated delivery systems and include providers across the continuum, such as hospitals and post-acute-care providers.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhysicians\u2019 buy-in to payment reform is likely to be critical to the success of the health-care reform,\u201d said Elliott Fisher, MD, MPH, director of The Dartmouth Institute and a coauthor on the paper. \u201cThe findings suggest that physicians are taking seriously their responsibility to lead change in the health-care system on behalf of their patients.\u201d Previous research has shown that involving physicians in the governance of provider organizations improves communication and builds trust by assuring practicing physicians and clinical staff that their professional values are represented. Physician governance also assures patients that their needs will be considered along with those of the organization, the researchers said.<\/p>\n

The abstract of the Viewpoint is available on the Health Affairs<\/em> website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice was founded in 1988 by Dr. John E. Wennberg as the Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences (CECS). Among its 25 years of accomplishments, it has established a new discipline and educational focus in the Evaluative Clinical Sciences, introduced and advanced the concept of shared decision-making for patients, demonstrated unwarranted variation in the practice and outcomes of medical treatment, developed the first comprehensive examination of US health care variations (The Dartmouth Atlas), and has shown that more health care is not necessarily better care.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In spite of early concerns that hospitals\u2019 economic strengths would lead them to dominate the formation of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), a new study reveals the central role of physician leadership in the first wave of ACOs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":1356,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The first national survey of ACOs finds that physicians are playing strong leadership and ownership roles. Read more...","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,182,8],"tags":[283,158,45],"class_list":["post-1357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-press-release-news","category-research","tag-aco","tag-health-care-reform","tag-tdi","post_format-post-format-aside","author-19"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2014\/06\/TDI-Logo_reversev3.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4r3h1-lT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1357"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1374,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1357\/revisions\/1374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}