To: Alighieri who wrote (704574 ) 3/16/2013 6:57:15 PM From: i-node Read Replies (1) | Respond to >> This opinion piece is an example of your incredible bias beacon...The ACO concept is based on assumptions about personal and economic behavior—by doctors, patients and others—that aren't realistic . Health-care providers are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build the technology and infrastructure necessary to establish ACOs. But the country isn't likely to get the improvements in cost, quality and access that it so desperately needs. "They'll need to employ evidence-based protocols more often to determine optimal treatment—for instance, in prescribing medication or deciding whether certain kinds of surgery are necessary. Doctors will also have to find ways to move some care to lower-cost sites of service, such as more surgery in ambulatory clinics instead of a hospital. ACOs aren't designed or equipped to transform physician behaviors on the scale that will be needed.
