title: Insights from transformations under way at four Brookings-Dartmouth accountable care organization pilot sites.
abstract: This cross-site comparison of the early experience of four provider organizations participating in the Brookings-Dartmouth Accountable Care Organization Collaborative identifies factors that sites perceived as enablers of successful ACO formation and performance. The four pilots varied in size, with between 7,000 and 50,000 attributed patients and 90 to 2,700 participating physicians. The sites had varying degrees of experience with performance-based payments; however, all formed collaborative new relationships with payers and created shared savings agreements linked to performance on quality measures. Each organization devoted major efforts to physician engagement. Policy makers now need to consider how to support and provide incentives for the successful formation of multipayer ACOs, and how to align private-sector and CMS performance measures. Linking providers to learning networks where payers and providers can address common technical issues could help. These sites' transitions to the new payment model constitutes an ongoing journey that will require continual adaptation in the structure of contracts and organizational attributes.
authors.affiliation: Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA. Bridget.K.Larson@dartmouth.edu
authors.forename: Bridget K
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Larson
authors.forename: Aricca D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Van Citters
authors.forename: Sara A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Kreindler
authors.forename: Kathleen L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Carluzzo
authors.forename: Josette N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Gbemudu
authors.forename: Frances M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Eugene C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.forename: Stephen M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Shortell
authors.forename: Elliott S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Fisher
mesh_terms: D060866:Accountable Care Organizations / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D017048:Health Care Costs; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000458:organization & administration; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008484:Medicaid / Q000191:economics; D006278:Medicare / Q000191:economics; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011050:Policy Making; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017149:Private Sector / Q000191:economics; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014481:United States