Slideshow: Keeping the ACO dream alive

June 21, 2012

11:30 AM

Time for change

Leaders of the new Medicare Shared Savings Program are excited about stepping up to the challenge of building accountable care organizations (ACOs). What excites them most? It's not the money. It's the opportunity to deliver better healthcare. Click through this slideshow to see what some of them have to say. Read this entire story in Healthcare IT News here.

John Friend, an attorney and the executive director of Arizona Connected Care firmly believes that the federal Shared Savings Program is part of one of the many changes that will revolutionize U.S. healthcare. "You have to begin by resetting the standards. ACOs are a part of that," Friend says.

Change will be hard, but worth it

Frank Marini, the chief information officer for Tucson Medical Center and Arizona Connected Care says the road won't be easy. “The ACO requires independent practitioners to have to do things differently to become aligned and coordinated across the continuum of care. When we make this work, it will be highly relevant and replicable for other communities like ours."

ACOs: a reason not to retire

Jeffrey Selwyn, an internist at New Pueblo Medicine, president of the board for Arizona Connected Care, was once resistant to EHR adoption, but now he is a champion for it. By gathering data, "we can work smarter, not harder," he says.

ACOs can boost coordination of care

Miguel Franco, MD, an internist and the medical director for the Accountable Care Coalition of Texas says, "One thing that we’re excited about is how the different kinds of practices can come together to coordinate care."

Support for primary care

Toby Bond, an internist and the president of the Accountable Care Coalition of Greater Athens Georgia, says primary care physicians are overworked and underpaid. “Primary care physicians are the backbone of medicine, but we have no resources,” he says. Bond is hoping ACOs can help with that.