Thursday, August 01, 2013

Hospital Networks Reject ObamaCare Initiative

Nine major hospital networks just decided they'd had enough of being "Pioneers" for ObamaCare. They withdrew from the health reform law's Pioneer Accountable Care Organization (ACO) initiative, which launched in January 2012 with 32 health systems participating. These ACOs are supposed to integrate doctors, hospitals and other providers into one seamless network that could "coordinate" care for Medicare patients — and in so doing, eliminate waste and control costs. But as these nine casualties illustrate, ACOs are going to fail in that mission. Worse, they'll diminish the quality of care that Medicare patients receive.
Read the complete article by Sally Pipes at Investor's Business Daily.