The ACO Evolution

It has been over a decade since the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (PPACA)—also known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare—introduced Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers, who come together voluntarily to give coordinated high-quality care to their patients. The initial focus of ACOs was on Medicare; now they span all payers. Of the 1,013 ACOs operating at the end of 2019, 86 were Medicaid ACOs. In comparison, 647 ACOs had at least one Medicare contract and 477 ACOs had at least one commercial contract (see . . .