ACO get formed by a group of health care providers which are hospitals, physicians, and others who come together to provide quality health care service to the patients. The main goal of the group is to provide the right care at the right time and save the money of the patients. They enable better coordination with the patients reducing the medical errors.
The fundamental state of the US health system has changed over the past 30 years. Before catastrophic cases such as accidents, epidemic were driving the health care services, but now lifestyle and chronic diseases are the driving forces. Chronic diseases need long-term care and can even prove expensive for patients. ACO makes the process easier as they help the patients to become healthy with proper planning and in a short time. As per a report, patients with complex care needs account for almost one-fifth of the total health care spending although they compromise only 1% of the patient’s numbers.
The accountable care organization (ACO) have the comprehensive management process which aligns the programs at the right place for managing the complex health care needs. ACOs now operate in all the 50 US states and assist the health care providers in providing better care to the patients. They are known for deploying health care management programs that take evidence-based strategies for delivering the right care to the patients. These evidence-based strategies are:
- Identification of the people who are at great risk for the unfavorable clinical conditions.
- Segregating the high-risk group of patients into different subgroups with the same needs.
- Engaging families and individuals in care decisions.
- Implementing programs that assist patients in addressing chronic illness.
ACOs improves clinical proficiency and patient engagement by reducing costs. Some of the effective methods are:
- Implementation of best practices: Health care organizations check whether proper care is provided to the patients, than the unnecessary care. For example, some hospitals follow the wrong protocol like doing an MRI and then prescribing the treatment, but in actual it should have been physical therapy in the first place and later the diagnoses. ACOs focusses on these areas and reduces the unnecessary expenditure.
- Reduction in administrative process: Reducing the use of resources, eliminating the unnecessary procedures, are some of the work followed by the ACOs. Reduced number of the administrative process helps in saving the money of the patients.
- Management in chronic care: Many of the healthcare organizations reach out to the different section of communities to help them in managing chronic health issues like diabetes. Chronic care management helps the patient in routine check-up and care which reduces the burden on the patients.
- Improves the access: E-visits which uses telehealth can be created so that they offer remote monitoring services. There are some healthcare organizations which offer incentives to the Physicians in-person. With accountable care organization in place, more of the patients can be seen frequently.
Some of the major improvements after the measures taken by ACO are 29% improvement in the patient’s number receiving colorectal cancer screening, 10% in breast cancer screening, 7% in blood pressure control.
Conclusion:
ACOs have been able to provide positive results such as improved care facility and saving the expenditure on treatment. A new report stated that America’s health care treatment services are out of control and need immediate attention. For example, a C-section procedure costs double the amount as in Australia, and cataract surgery is the most expensive in the USA.
Many of the US patients find it convenient to get treatment in a foreign country as it saves their money and time. As per a Forbes report, even the doctor wait time has soared 30% in the major US cities. Most of the patients have to wait for an average of 24 days for scheduling an appointment with a doctor.
For this reason, patients in the USA find it convenient to get treatment in a foreign country as it saves their money and time. In such cases, ACOs comes as a boon for the US patients, in providing the right care at the right time, and saving their expenditure.
References:
https://www.healthcatalyst.com/success_stories/aco-measures-mission-health
https://www.vox.com/a/health-prices
Author Bio:
My name is Lauren Williams, currently working as a senior marketing manager at MedicoReach. My hobbies include watching football, basketball and free time writer. I love traveling and food geek — this all about me in simple words.