Why Collaboration Across the Care Continuum Improves ACO Patient Experience

How Unsiloing Healthcare Pays Off

A study out of the Ohio State University Fisher College of Business explores factors that can help ACOs deliver more efficient and effective health care, by how much and the costs associated with these improvements.

The paper, “Collaboration Structures in Integrated Healthcare Delivery Systems: An Exploratory Study of Accountable Care Organizations,” describes ACOs as umbrella organizations with ownership of facilities across a patient’s continuum of care. These can include pre-acute (primary care physicians, specialists, etc.), acute (hospitals), and post-acute (rehabilitation or nursing care) services.

Using the entire population data sourced from 528 Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) ACOs from 2013-2016, the researchers looked specifically at how these organizations were structured and the impact these structures had on collaborative health care delivery.