Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) released a draft chairman’s mark on healthcare reform that would cost $856 billion over 10 years. Included in the mark are provisions that address a few of the points I’ve rallied for in the past, such as a value-based purchasing program, similar to the CMS/Premier Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration, of which Aurora has been part since its inception, and the establishment of criteria that would allow hospitals, doctors’ and nurses’ groups to be identified as accountable care organizations (ACOs) and earn incentive bonus payments.
As I see it, however, there are two main points which must be addressed within the legislation in order for accountable care organizations to work:
- As I’d noted in my previous video blog entry, we must include a provision in the tax code to identify these organizations so that it makes it both legal and easier for subsidiaries and providers to put the pieces together. This could be as simple as just adding a sentence or two to the current tax code to allow an accountable care organization to act as an “operational parent.”
- Also, we will need to modify the Sherman Antitrust Act to allow competing organizations to work together in the interest of truly moving toward accountable care.
Without addressing these critical issues, we likely face an unsuccessful result, as the system will remain as upside down as it currently is, rather than making ACOs truly responsible for the quality and costs of the community they serve.
Ed Howe blogs regularly at Action for Better Healthcare.