1. ACOs encourage collaboration between physicians and hospitals, but what are the implications for this collaboration in terms of anti-trust laws and who is the policing entity –the Justice Department or the FTC?
2. Fragmentation of the US Health care delivery system.
3. Physician income disparities between specialties.
4. Large single-specialty medical groups that have the market power to opt out of the ACO.
5. Physicians in an virtual ACOs will not have a have a shared history and organization, potentially negatively impacting ACO providers in maximizing cost savings and revenues.
6. Hospitals and physicians will weed out high risk and high cost patients– making them act similarly to insurance companies-again potentially reducing clinical outcomes and r ability to control costs and maximize $$$.
7. How do you form ACOs in rural areas where it is difficult to obtain the required number of members to make them cost effective?
8. How will an ACO administer care and control costs for medical tourists and members who reside in more than one area?
9. How will ACO managed patients seek care outside of the ACO?
Please join Susan Charkin, MPH President of Healthcents Inc., and others who will be part of panel discussion on ACOs during the 2011 Annual Meeting Symposia-Practice Management Symposium for Practicing Orthopedic Surgeons on Tuesday, February 15, 2011 between 07:30 AM – 05:00 at the San Diego Convention Center.
If you wish to contact Susan to discuss your specific ACO questions and how you can best position your practice to prepare for ACOs, please contact her at 800.497.4970 or email at charkin@healthcents.com
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