Accountable care organization patients reported greater satisfaction with some aspects of their care after one year in the program, according to a study published this week in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers in the Harvard Medical School Department of Health Care Policy conducted the study, based on data from three years before and one year after the 2012 launch of the two Medicare ACO programs, the Pioneer program and the Medicare Shared Savings Program. Roughly 5.6 million Medicare beneficiaries are now enrolled in these two programs, according to a Medical Xpress article.
Patients reported more timely access to care and better coordination of care between primary physicians and specialists as part of an ACO program. However, patient-physician interactions and overall care showed no significant improvement in the first year of the programs, according to the study.
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