Objectives: Hospital participation in accountable care organizations (ACOs)—Medicare’s signature alternative payment model—continues to grow despite mixed evidence on spending and quality. This study examined whether hospital ACO participation is associated with changes in emergency department (ED) admission practices, hospital length of stay (LOS), and spending for unplanned admissions. Among the 995 hospitals (27.6% of the short-term hospitals in our study) that joined a Medicare ACO during the study period, program participation up to 5 years was not associated with changes in the rate of hospitalization from the ED, hospital LOS, or total costs of the index event.
Read the full article: Hospital Participation in Medicare ACOs: No Change in Admission Practices and Spending //
Source: https://www.ajmc.com/view/hospital-participation-in-medicare-acos-no-change-in-admission-practices-and-spending