Within six months, the number of hospitals and health systems that joined or created an ACO grew by roughly 5 percent, according to Premier's 2013 Fall Economic Outlook.
The survey also found the number of providers who will have an ACO in place by the end of this year, as they reported in the spring, will fall short. Still, population health has been pushed to the forefront of many executives' priorities, as 12 percent of health system CEOs called population health their top strategic issue in a Premier member survey. Last year, that figure stood at 3 percent.
Premier commissioned the online survey in summer 2013. The 454 respondents included a representative sample of members across geography, organization size and organization type. Members of the C-suite accounted for nearly 30 percent of responses, while supply chain, service line and administrative managers also comprised a majority of responses. Italicized figures represent the findings for the same questions from Premier's 2013 Spring Economic Outlook.
Time until the organization joins or creates an ACO:
• We already have an ACO in place — 26.6 percent
(compared to 21.9 percent in spring 2013)
• By the end of 2013 — 7.2 percent
(compared to 14.3 percent in spring 2013)
• By the end of 2014 — 21 percent
(compared to 18 percent in spring 2013)
• By the end of 2015 — 10.6 percent
(compared to 9.7 percent in spring 2013)
• My health system will not be creating or joining an ACO in the foreseeable future — 23.1 percent
(compared to 26.5 percent in spring 2013)
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