In August, Sharp HealthCare in San Diego disclosed that two months earlier it had become the 10th of 32 original participants in Medicare's Pioneer ACO program to drop out.

That hiccup hardly set back the grand experiment called accountable care organizations. Some remain downright bullish on the concept, and are happily reporting positive results.

Late last month, health insurer Aetna and Phoenix-based integrated delivery system Banner Health Network said average medical costs declined by 5 percent in 2013 among commercially insured patients in their joint ACO effort. They reported 9 percent lower utilization of pricey radiology services and a similar drop in preventable hospital readmissions, while participating physicians prescribed generic drugs at a 4 percent higher rate than in 2012.

Control of blood sugar in diabetic patients also improved, as did screening for several types of cancer, Banner and Aetna said.

Even before this news broke, another Phoenix-area provider, the multispecialty Cigna Medical Group and related payer Cigna HealthCare of Arizona announced an ACO-like partnership with New Century Health, a Wellesley, Mass.-based care management company that specializes in cardiology and oncology. New Century will offer IT, analytics and clinical assistance to some Cigna members undergoing cancer treatment in Arizona, with the "triple aim" of safer patient care, improved population health and lower costs in mind.

Key components of the plan include a clinical decision support platform as well as analytics/benchmarking.

"We are leveraging IT and data capabilities to analyze both the clinical context of patients and cost of care," said New Century Health CEO Atul Dhir, MD. "It's really the next generation of technology here."

New Century will make a Web-based decision support platform available at the point of care for both safety checking and prospective based on specific clinical criteria, according to Dhir. The system will be matched to a database of national, evidence-based oncology guidelines. "It can provide alerts or even [let physicians] have a peer-to-peer review before they treat a patient," Dhir said.

On the analytics side, New Century will parse clinical data and claims records from Cigna and other payers to benchmark care against local, regional and national standards. The company also will be able to deliver a clinical dashboard to care providers in real time, according to Dhir.

The platform pre-loads demographic and medical history, including pharmacy records, from the payer. Physicians then check off boxes during patient consultations. "Info can be readily shared with others, including payers and referring doctors," Dhir said.

"It's next-generation because it's not about second-guessing the physicians," he explained. "And it is a very efficient and scalable technology platform," one integrated with IT systems from both the medical practice and payers.