After nine accountable care organizations dropped out of the Pioneer ACO model this year, leaving the program with 23 participants, CMS is considering opening the application process to allow more organizations to join the program.
Integration & Physician Issues
About 18 percent of hospital executives report having an accountable care organization in place, and that is expected to double by the end of 2014, according to Premier's 2013 Fall Economic Outlook.
Maintaining positive relationships with employed and independent physicians continues to be easier said than done for hospitals and health systems.
Great Neck, N.Y.-based North Shore-LIJ Health System has added Orthopaedic Associates of Great Neck, a five-physician practice, to the system.
Arizona Care Network, a collaboration between San Francisco-based Dignity Health and Phoenix-based Abrazo Health, has formed an accountable care collaboration with Aetna.
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More than half — 68 percent — of physicians still own or have an ownership stake in a practice, but that number is likely to drastically drop soon, according to data from Jackson Healthcare.
University Hospitals in Cleveland has partnered with UnitedHealthcare for an accountable care organization that will launch Feb. 1, 2014, according to a report by The Plain Dealer.
Hospitals are having a difficult time filling their empty physician and nurse slots.
A majority — 72 percent — of Americans prefer to see a physician over a nonphysician provider for their medical care, according to a survey conducted by Iposos, a private research think tank.
More hospitals are calling on their physicians to take active roles in the community and become the faces that represent the organization to prospective patients and other physicians. As a part of this effort, hospitals are sending physicians out into…