Dr Michael Chernew Previews the ACO Coalition Spring Live Meeting

If accountable care organizations (ACOs) are going to be successful, they need to learn from another and have meetings like the ACO & Emerging Healthcare Delivery Coalition's Spring Live Meeting, being held April 28-29 in Scottsdale, Arizona, to exchange good information, explained Michael Chernew, PhD, co-editor-in-chief of The American Journal of Managed Care. Dr Chernew will also sit on a panel discussion about the future state of healthcare in the United States during the ACO Coalition's meeting.

To learn more and for complimentary registration, visit the meeting page.

Transcript (slightly modified)

What are you most looking forward to at the ACO & Emerging Healthcare Delivery Coalition Spring Live Meeting?

I think the issue for all ACOs is how to succeed financially. I've argued for a long time that a system like ACOs that allows providers to capture the savings if they create efficiencies is a good thing. There's many people who believe there is 30% inefficiency in the system, yet if you look at the evaluation, the ACOs are getting out a few percentage points at least early on—the public ACOs. I've seen some evidence from commercial ACOs that do a lot better.

So the challenge that all ACOs have is to learn from each other about how can they actually achieve the potential of the ACO movement. What I'm looking forward to about the meeting in Arizona is I think it provides an opportunity for individuals to both meet with one another, to learn strategies that have been successful, and to listen to speakers about not only how ACOs might be successful but also to get some sense of where the ACO program is going, where the benchmarks are going, where risk adjustments are going—all those types of things

I think it's important to have real working-type meetings where good information is exchanged if ACOs are going to be successful in this environment.