ACOs (Affordable Care Act): A new Step to Healthier World’s

The year was 2006 when Elliot Fisher, the director of Centre for Health Policy Research at Dartmouth Medical School coined the term “Accountable Care Organisation” or “ACO” as we know it now and when it was included in federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2009 that’s when it reached its height. Starting from 32 ACO’s in December 2011 to 606 public and private ACO’s till January 2014, ACO’s have come a long way.

ACO’s were formed looking at one goal i.e. to ensure that patients, especially the chronically ill, get the right care at the right time, while avoiding unnecessary duplication of services and preventing medical errors. ACO’s have played a major part in improving the health care industry in United States. With the help of ACO’s, the health care industry is booming like never before and as a result there is an all-round development in patient care.

Weeds In The Path!!!

ACO’s are landing a great hand in improving the quality of care while reducing healthcare spending in a nation with high health expenditures. However, there are many challenges which ACO’s are facing in their daily work flow which directly affects their implementation and development. The challenges are on both small scale and large scale which needs to be addressed as quickly as possible to take a step towards the betterment and development of the health care industry and in turn the development of our United States.

There are many barriers and challenges which ACO’s face which directly have an adverse effect on their growth.

Here are a few roadblocks…

Multispecialty Group Formation – There are great income disparities between specialties and multiple ways that physicians can be paid which makes it very difficult to bring all of them under a multispecialty roof as it is very important to manage care across the perpetuity.

Cultural – What matters the most at an ACO is culture. If a patient-focused, physician-led accountable culture is there than everything else will fall in place or can be taken care of. An ACO should always be ready to accept the new technologies and advancement and be ready to adapt to the growing changes in the health care industry. Trying to integrate the different business cultures of partnering organizations into one can be a significant barrier.

Resources –AN ACO should have enough resources like staff, facilities, money etc. to carry itself and should be ready to take care of growing demands.

Staffing – Mostly primary care physician’s makes up for the staff of an ACO. It can be a big challenge to find the number of physicians needed with proper knowledge, expertise and experience.

Lack of Equipments – Different providers and hospitals go for different technology and equipments. It can take a great effort to be up to date with all types of equipments and technology available and provide them when asked.

Market – The main problem that a market pose in front of an ACO is that market is always evolving. Health care markets keep changing every time so it’s very important for the ACO’s to keep itself updated and know its own status and value in the market.

Legal – This is something which no ACO can avoid. To complete all legal formalities is a must and to come on par with the new acts which keeps coming is also a challenging task.

ACO’s are trying very hard to keep themselves in a position so that they can pose a challenge to these challenges and overcome them. With the help of government and the people of United States, ACO’s are continuously making themselves better and better and taking the health care industry and the health of the people of United States to a whole new level which was there in our dreams a decade ago.