Accountable Care Solution Center

The Accountable Care Solution Center (ACSC) provides services to support physician practices looking to engage in Accountable Care Organizations, accountable care delivery and new payment models.  The ACSC leverages the expertise of the Society with industry experts to provide tools, resources, "how to" guides and consulting services geared toward accountable care.

Getting Started

• MMS Guide to Accountable Care Organizations
  Detailed guidance on the issues that physicians should consider whether they are currently participating in an accountable care organization, forming or joining an ACO, or entering into an integration agreement with another health care organization.
  
• Clinical and Financial Integration of Physician Practices
  Three video clips from a seminar on what physicians need to know today as they consider aligning themselves clinically and financially with other practices and larger health care systems. 
  
• Clinical Integration: A Physician's Guide
  A physician's guide into the opportunities and challenges of clinical integration where there is no direct economic integration between health care entities, but which deliver care on an integrated basis for purposes of managed care contracting. 
• Physician Criteria for Participation in an Accountable Care Organization  
  This research-based guide provides insight into the criteria that ACOs use to determine which physicians to include in their networks, the metrics by which physician performance is evaluated, and the opportunities for physician practices. 
  

Resources for Practices

• ACO Governance Models: Key Findings & Best Practices  
  The results of MMS interviews with the leaders of seven ACOs to determine best practices for ACO governance.
  
• A Path to Accountable Care Organizations: How Do We Get There from Here?
  One page summaries of an MMS symposium on accountable care organizations that featured five speakers addressing the key considerations for ACO formation and operations.
• Medicare ACOs: Regulations and Guidelines 
  News and resources regarding the federal government's Medicare ACO Shared Savings Program. Includes guidance from the FTC and DOJ about ACO anti-trust issues. 
• Risk Adjustment for Accountable Care Organizations
  • Applications in Global Payments to Providers
  • Important Considerations for Global Payments to Providers
  • Checklist for Physicians Entering Into Risk-Based Global Payment Contracts
• Global Payments: How They Did It, and What Works
  Three physician executives in Massachusetts discuss how practices can succeed under a global payment system. Perspectives from the Mount Auburn-Cambridge IPA, Atrius Health, and the Beth Israel Deaconess Physician Organization. (Series of three videos)
• Towards a Shared Vision of Payment Reform
  Slides, summaries and video excerpts from MMS conference on ACOs in theory and practice.
• Global Payments and Accountable Care Organizations
  Overview of global payments and accountable care organizations, and outlines the issues physicians must consider when either establishing or joining an accountable care organization.
• Common Elements of Health Systems Using Global Payments and Episodic Payment Models  
  The experience of several health care systems around the country that have incorporated global, as well as episodic, payment models.
• Towards Effective Health Care Systems (.pdf, 19 pages)
  The main elements of effective health care systems in the US, and the challenges implementing them.