In the oft-cited New Yorker Magazine piece, Atul Gawande proposes Accountable Care Organizations (a gainsharing strategy) as his remedy to the seemingly conflicting goals of controlling health care costs while improving quality and efficiency.
While other savings proposals such as cuts in payment rates, bundled payments, and capitated health plans have faced opposition, “a voluntary payment reform designed around ACOs and shared savings offers an incremental and promising middle ground that could meet the interests of providers, beneficiaries, and taxpayers better than the competing alternatives.”
The ACO shared- savings model supports and rewards those who improve care and lower costs. According to former CMS head, Dr. McClellan, “Linking new investments in health care to demonstrated improvements in health and medical costs creates a win-win: providers and patients can get more support for real improvements in care, and we all benefit from lower costs.”
And most physicians and hospitals could form ACOs by building on their current practice patterns.
The problem, of course, is that gainsharing is illegal within the current antitrust environment.
Greta Van Susteren had a great interview with Cleveland Clinic's CEO.
ReplyDeletehttp://gretawire.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/08/05/the-cleveland-clinic-the-full-story/
Charles Krauthammer's Healthcare Plan:
ReplyDeletehttp://townhall.com/columnists/CharlesKrauthammer/2009/08/07/health_care_reform_a_better_plan