Adoption of accountable care organizations (ACO) has more than tripled in four years and clinical integration continues to challenge non-adopters, according to a Healthcare Intelligence Network analysis of accountable care organization benchmarks from 2011 to 2015. According to year-over-year ACO metrics published in 2015 Healthcare Benchmarks: Accountable Care Organizations, the percentage of healthcare organizations in ACOs has climbed from 14 to 50 percent in the last four years.

Leadership of ACOs by payor-provider co-ops or health plans has slowed to a trickle during this period, while the percentage of physician-hospital organization (PHOs) firmly grasping administration reins has nearly doubled—from 15 percent in 2011 to 28 percent among 2015 respondents.

ACO Staffs Support Healthcare Integration

The ACO staff has become more diverse, boasting more specialists, health coaches and clinical psychologists to support integration of behavioral health and primary care, the ‘sweet spot’ of patient-centered medicine. Watchwords are care coordination and care management, according to 2015 respondents who shared ACO success stories.

Staffing within ACOs has swelled as well: 29 percent of 2015 survey respondents support 500-1,000 physicians within its ACO, nearly double the 17 percent reporting this staffing ratio in 2011.

The average ACO is also busier than ever, with 61 percent encompassing 10,000 covered lives or more, up from 42 percent in 2011, perhaps reflecting consolidation occurring across the healthcare landscape.

Today, healthcare organizations are more conservative about time required to adequately frame an ACO, with 20 percent of 2015 respondents reporting that two years or more was needed, up from 4 percent in 2011, while the percentage requiring 12 to 18 months for ACO creation dropped from 50 percent in 2011 to 37 percent this year.

Reimbursement Shifts from Volume- to Value-Based

The retrospective data supports the industry's transition from the traditional fee for service payment environment to the value-based reimbursement structure favored today, with 45 percent of 2015 respondents favoring a FFS + care coordination + shared savings payment model, up from 15 percent in 2012. (Note: 2011 respondents were not surveyed on reimbursement models).

This handwriting is on CMS's wall, in the form of its pledge to move half of Medicare payments into value-based payment models by 2018. More than half of 2015 respondents—54 percent—expressed faith in the federal payor's ability to meet this financial goal.

Despite the latest benchmarks, operational ACOs insist no two accountable care organizations are alike. In the experience of Steward Health Care Network, a top-performing Medicare Pioneer ACO, "When you've seen one ACO, you've really seen...one ACO." Having ended Pioneer performance year two with gross savings of $19.2 million, Steward still must scale the perennial hurdles of physician engagement, performance improvement and care management, explained Kelly Clements, Steward's Pioneer program director.

This year's ACO survey benchmarks bear this out. Clinical integration, which can only succeed with the support of an engaged physician population, is still the biggest barrier to ACO formation, say 17 percent of 2015 survey respondents with no plans for accountable care.

Source: 2015 Healthcare Benchmarks: Accountable Care Organizations

2015 Healthcare Benchmarks: Accountable Care Organizations, HIN's fourth annual compendium of metrics on ACOs, captures how ACOs are faring in an industry rapidly shifting away from fee for service to one that rewards quality, the patient and population experiences, and cost efficiencies.

For more information or to order your copy today, please visit:
http://store.hin.com/product.asp?itemid=5046

This 60-page report, now in its fourth year, delivers actionable data from more 110 healthcare companies who completed HIN's fourth comprehensive ACO assessment in April 2015.

New in the 2015 Edition:

• Feedback on CMS's new Next Generation ACO model;
• Comparative 2013-to-2015 data on key ACO metrics;
• Expectations for CMS's recently announced timeline to move Medicare payments to alternative payment models;
• Utilization of embedded case management in ACOs;
• Favored ACO accreditation and recognition programs;
• Telehealth and telemedicine use by ACOs;
• The most effective tools, protocols and work flows in use in ACOs — in respondents' own words;
• The complete August 2015 Accountable Care Organizations survey tool.

Standard ACO Metrics Set:

As HIN benchmarks readers and members have come to expect, 2015 Healthcare Benchmarks: Accountable Care Organizations continues to document the ways in which accountable care is transforming healthcare delivery, particularly in the area of care coordination, where the ACO model once again has had enormous impact for this year's respondents, and avoidable hospital utilization, on which the ACO model is also reporting a downward trend.

For the fourth consecutive year, 2015 Healthcare Benchmarks: Accountable Care Organizations provides sector-specific qualitative data in the following areas:

• Current and planned ACOs;
• Numbers of physicians participating in ACOs;
• Types of providers participating in ACOs;
• Principal ACO administrators;
• Participation by ACO model (MSSP, Pioneer ACO, etc.)
• Populations covered by current ACOs;
• Numbers of lives covered by current ACOs;
• Time required for ACO development;
• ACO program components, including the use of electronic health records (EHRs), patient portals, evidence-based care, and other elements;
• Reimbursement models in use in ACOs;
• Metrics to evaluate ACO success;
• Preferred quality, efficiency and satisfaction measure sets in use in ACOs;
• ROI from ACOs;
• Impact of ACO model on population health, healthcare spend and other indicators;
• Early successes from ACOs;
• Greatest challenges associated with an ACO launch;

These metrics are presented in more than 60 easy-to-follow graphs and tables.

Order your copy today online:
http://store.hin.com/product.asp?itemid=5046

The 60-page 2015 Healthcare Benchmarks: Accountable Care Organizations is part of the HIN Healthcare Benchmarking series, which provides continuous qualitative data on industry trends to empower healthcare companies to assess strengths, weaknesses and opportunities to improve by comparing organizational performance to reported metrics.

If you are already a Healthcare Benchmark series member, then this report is FREE for you.

Available in Single or Multi-User Licenses

A multi-user license will provide you with the right to install and use this information on your company's computer network for an unlimited number of additional workstations within your organization for a one-time fee. To have this valuable resource on your network, or to inquire about ordering bulk copies in print or Adobe PDF, please e-mail [email protected] or call 888-446-3530.

P.S. -- You may also be interested in these accountable care organization resources:

• Embedded Care Coordination for At-Risk Populations: A Case Study from Yale New Haven Health System

• 6 Value-Based Physician Reimbursement Models: Action Plans for Alignment, Analytics and Profitability

• Medicare Pioneer ACO: Care Management, Quality Improvement and Data Integration Yields Substantial Performance Gains