To support better care while reducing or controlling costs, accountable care organizations (ACOs) and medical homes will need to emphasize ways that the healthcare community can enhance access, promote better care coordination, use health information technology better, and apply coordinated payments, according to a new consenus report, Better to Best: Value-Driving Elements of the Patient Centered Medical Home and Accountable Care Organizations, released today.
The recommendations, based on a discussion Sept. 8 among a cross-section of healthcare stakeholders--including representatives from health plans, physicians, academics, employers, federal payers and consumers--first focus on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Triple Aim: Better care, better health, lower costs.
This will mean that metrics and measurements must be developed that "so the focus does not move away from an emphasis on individual patient health or population health" and only looks to cost containment, they said. In addition, demonstration project models must be developed that evaluate the timeliness of data for population health management and examine per capita costs at the community level.
They also call for new payment systems, with new models of payment being tested. "The idea is to enable multiple approaches to reform at the same time, so winning models can be disseminated at a faster pace," the report said.
"It's really powerful. It's the first time there's been such a broad agreement on a set of principles," said Paul Grundy, MD, IBM's Global Director of Healthcare Transformation and president of the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC), in a statement. "There's an understanding from providers about what they want to provide and a consensus among buyers that they want to buy what the providers are offering."
The report was developed by PCPCC, in partnership with the Commonwealth Fund and the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.
For more details:
- see the consensus report
- view the release
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