Half Of U.S. Population Can Access Accountable Care Organizations

As of January 2013, about half of the United States population lived in a geographic region with at least one of the 260 Medicare accountable care organizations (ACO) approved by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) since January 2012, or with an ACO-like arrangement set up by commercial payers. About 14% of the United States population, an estimated 37 million patients, are served by provider organizations participating in Medicare ACOs and commercial ACO-like arrangements. ACOs are groups of physicians, hospitals, and other health care providers, who agree to work together to provide coordinated, high quality . . .