Hanover, N.H.-based Dartmouth College researchers created the Affordable Care Act's accountable care organization model, which aims to improve care while lowering costs. However, the college's decision to leave the ACO program has many wondering if ACOs are sustainable, according to The New York Times.
Here are five insights:
1. Currently, Medicare has more than 400 ACOs that serve nearly 8 million of 57 million Medicare beneficiaries.
2. While the Obama administration has said ACOs are fulfilling their promise of saving money and improving care, some have doubts. Ashish K. Jha, MD, a professor at Boston-based Harvard School of Public Health said, "There's little in the way of analysis or data about how ACOs did in 2015. The results have not been a home run."
3. Dartmouth's ACO did cut Medicare spending on medical procedures, hospital stays, imaging and tests while meeting its achieved goals for quality of care. However, the college suffered financial penalties after it failed to meet the money-saving benchmarks that federal officials set.
4. Elliott S. Fisher, MD, director of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, was among Dartmouth faculty members who spearheaded the ACO concept in a 2006 paper. The paper said the government should measure both the performance of hospitals and physicians, as opposed to solely a physician's individual performance.
5. Dr. Fisher said while research illustrates ACOs have yielded moderate savings, they have failed to meet the overall savings goal.
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