Hackensack University Medical Center said it is launching its new accountable care organization with a pilot that will enroll the medical center’s employees in the ACO, a new approach to health care delivery that seeks to coordinate medical care, engage patients in their own wellness, and ultimately improve health and control costs.
The medical center’s ACO, Hackensack Physician Alliance LLC, is collaborating with the managed health care company QualCare, which is the ACO’s administrative partner.
Hackensack UMC said ACOs seek to moderate health care costs by improving the quality of care. The strategy of the ACO is to share savings with health care providers when quality is improved and costs are reduced, so providers get rewarded for offering better, not just more, care.
In a news release, hospital CEO Robert C. Garrett said regardless of what happens to the federal Affordable Care Act — now facing both political and legal challenges — providers need to be at the front of helping change the way health care is delivered.
QualCare said it is working with Hackensack and other major health care systems to advance accountable care. “Over the last 18 months, we have been evaluating various models and strategies to use our self-insured health plans as pilots,” Annette Catino, QualCare CEO, said in a news release. “It makes so much sense to start with the medical center’s employee health plans, where there is more control over the benefits and incentives that could be tested.”
