The head of a medical technology group is asking whether the new accountable care organizations will chill medical innovation by promoting a "cheapest is best" approach to health care.
The head of a medical technology group is asking whether the new accountable care organizations (ACOs) will chill medical innovation by promoting a "cheapest is best" approach to health care.
Stephen Ubl, president of AdvaMed, Washington, talks about ACOs in a blog on Health Affairs, an academic journal that focus on efforts to deliver and pay for health care.
An ACO is supposed to be a vehicle for paying teams of health care providers to provide and manage care for whole patients, instead of paying for care one service at a time.
Section 3022 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) requires Medicare to set up a Medicare Shared Savings Program that will promote use of Medicare ACOs starting in 2012.
Medical societies have argued that health insurer concentration helps insurers dominate physicians in an unfair way.
Health insurers traditionally have argued that they need substantial market clout to bargain
