A Wall Street Journal editorial has lambasted accountable care organizations, calling the model a "fiasco" based on top-down micromanagement.
The editorial notes the proposed ACO rule is "so awful that even the models for it say they won't participate." It points out the ironic, and possibly tragic, possibility that Paul Ryan's Medicare reform plan is likely to drive more accountable care than ACOs. Under that plan, seniors would be held responsible for the marginal costs of their care, which is expected to prompt them to choose more efficient providers.
The editorial says this approach "respects the complexity and uncertainty of modern medicine," and ACOs won't work since the government can't know what works and what doesn't in regards for different people and places.
"The ACO concept is well-meaning, and we hope it works, but we suspect it will go the way of diagnostic-related groups, HMOs, the sustainable growth rate, and every other top-down government plan to cut health spending since the 1970s," the editorial says.
Read the Wall Street Journal editorial on accountable care organizations.
Related Articles on ACOs:
No Medicare ACOs For Mayo Clinic
"Disappointed" Cleveland Clinic Recommends Changes to Proposed ACO Rule
Analysis of Comments on ACOs Finds Certain Regulations Sparked More Concern Than Others
The editorial notes the proposed ACO rule is "so awful that even the models for it say they won't participate." It points out the ironic, and possibly tragic, possibility that Paul Ryan's Medicare reform plan is likely to drive more accountable care than ACOs. Under that plan, seniors would be held responsible for the marginal costs of their care, which is expected to prompt them to choose more efficient providers.
The editorial says this approach "respects the complexity and uncertainty of modern medicine," and ACOs won't work since the government can't know what works and what doesn't in regards for different people and places.
"The ACO concept is well-meaning, and we hope it works, but we suspect it will go the way of diagnostic-related groups, HMOs, the sustainable growth rate, and every other top-down government plan to cut health spending since the 1970s," the editorial says.
Read the Wall Street Journal editorial on accountable care organizations.
Related Articles on ACOs:
No Medicare ACOs For Mayo Clinic
"Disappointed" Cleveland Clinic Recommends Changes to Proposed ACO Rule
Analysis of Comments on ACOs Finds Certain Regulations Sparked More Concern Than Others