The biggest obstacle healthcare facility administrators and doctors face when forming accountable care organizations (ACOs) is physician alignment, says a new survey by healthcare staffing company AMN Healthcare.
“While capital and data are essential to forming ACOs, the success of this emerging model turns on people,” said AMN Healthcare president and CEO Susan Salka in a statement about the survey. “Health facility leaders and physicians must align their interests, communicate and cooperate for this model to work."
[See also: PwC says doctors, hospitals must work together.]
The survey, sent to more than 105,000 healthcare facility administrators and doctors nationwide, examined how many healthcare facilities are participating in ACOs or plan to in the future; what challenges administrators and doctors are facing in the adoption of the ACO model; and administrator and physician perspectives on whether or not ACOs will deliver significant cost and quality benefits.
Fifty-eight percent of 882 administrators and physicians responding to the survey said their facilities are either in the process of forming ACOs or are considering doing so, while 42 percent said their facilities will not form ACOs in the foreseeable future.
Of those who are moving toward ACOs, 42 percent said physician alignment is the most serious obstacle to their efforts, followed by lack of capital (38 percent), lack of integrated IT systems (31 percent), and lack of evidence-based treatment protocol data (25 percent).
Of those who are not moving toward ACOs, 40 percent cited physician alignment as a reason they are not, followed by lack of capital (31 percent), lack of integrated IT systems (26 percent), and lack of evidence-based treatment protocol data (23 percent).
The survey also noted that the majority of healthcare facility administrators and physicians still hope that ACOs will deliver significant cost and quality benefits over time. Fifty-nine percent of those surveyed either strongly agreed or somewhat agreed that ACOs will deliver benefits and that they are a key to enhancing quality and reducing costs. However, a significant minority (41 percent) either strongly disagreed or somewhat disagreed with that statement.