Oregon is taking a new approach to accountable care organizations in two ways: by calling them coordinated care organizations and by grading them, according to a Kaiser Health News report.
One component of the grading process will be patients’ body mass index, which will indicate whether they are losing weight. Other grades will be based on the number of patients who smoke and the percentage of patients who end up in the emergency department.
The idea to grade the CCOs stems largely from John Kitzhaber, MD, the state’s Democratic governor who is a former emergency department physician and an innovative healthcare advocate. Gov. Kitzhaber said he hopes such a grading system will eventually catch on with private payors so they can differentiate themselves on quality instead of costs alone.
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Blue Shield of California Invests $20M to Help Providers Launch ACOs
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