How Price Transparency Helps Accountable Care Manage Costs

A new study suggests that primary care providers participating in an accountable care organization (ACO) and having greater engagement with patients transparency into the cost of services and procedures have the ability to bend the healthcare cost curve by an 8 to 1 margin in terms of return on investment (ROI).

“To improve overall cost, providers should partner with hospitals to reduce both utilization and unit cost of services. Although ACOs sponsored by physician groups have seen more growth recently, the majority of ACOs are still sponsored by hospitals,” writes the author, Anthony Akosa, MD, MBA.

“To remain competitive in the post health care reform environment, these hospital-sponsored ACOs have to reduce overutilization of services and lower their pricing,” he continues. “The lost revenue from reducing unit cost and decreasing overutilization of services could be recouped from the shared savings agreements with payers.”

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Source: EHR Intelligence