Author: admin

by Gregg A. Masters, MPH

I awoke this morning to an email from a PR rep who supports outbound news for one of the emerging ACO management companies enabling physician led participation in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) aka Aledade (@AledadeACO).

I then copy, pasted and tweeted the headline: ‘Aledade Creating New Medicare Accountable Care Organizations in Seven States.‘

I usually ignore ‘PRs’, yet this announcement is material as it lends support via a growing body of evidence on the viability of the ACO model and its enabling ‘consciousness’ if not ‘sentiment shift’ in the prevailing market narrative.

While some still slam the ACA – and by proxy it’s ACO ‘workhorse’ – via relentless yet ‘diminishing returns‘ impact of the ‘government takeover‘ fear mongering fueled by strategically sourced oppositional research, there is a building steady body of evidence supporting both the model and the broader context of efficacy of the competitive dynamics the ACA has unleashed on the stewards of our at risk (some say collapsing) healthcare economy.

Ergo my tweet:

Ever since the Senate Finance Committee took up the debate and relentless series of ‘amendments‘ proffered by the ‘Rs’ trying to ‘improve‘ the proposed legislation that eventually emerged as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (I NEVER use the pejorative term ‘Obamacare’), I’ve been a voice in the narrative of trying to get the facts of competitive market dynamics into the post political conversation around reforming our complex healthcare economy.

This is no easy task as the complexity of both the political process and objective reporting of how legislation becomes law including its contextual historical narrative is addressed in ‘A Legislative History of the Affordable Care Act: How Legislative Procedure Shapes Legislative History.‘

A challenge recognized upfront via admittedly ‘apolitical’ or ideologically agnostic ‘law librarians’ (yeah, you know those agenda driven bullies):

“Using the health care legislation passed in 2010 as a model to show how legislative procedure shapes legislative history, this article posits that legislative procedure has changed, making the traditional model of the legislative process used by law librarians and other researchers insufficient to capture the history of modern legislation. To prove this point, it follows the process through which the health care legislation was created and describes the information resources generated. The article concludes by listing resources that will give law librarians and other researchers a grounding in modern legislative procedure and help them navigate the difficulties presented by modern lawmaking.”

Since social media was starting to pick up in 2009 – 2010 time-frame, and given the angst associated with the public’s consumption of the ACA, I started ACO Watch and latter the hashtag #healthreform to track tweets associated with ACA consideration.

None-the-less, 5 years later the disinformation campaign persists though some of the pieces of the ACA are starting to show some promise of the law’s original intent. ACOs often referred to as a flawed model, perhaps an ACO lite if you will or too little too late to make a difference, the emerging datasets (both government and private market tea leaves) are building a case that the law is working.

Tomorrow on PopHealth Week, join my colleague, co-host and co-founder Fred Goldstein as we chat with Aledade Founder and CEO Farzard Mostashari, MD. This month we’re conducting a series on Population Health and ACOs talking to leadership from each ACO type: physician led, hospital sponsored and health plan enabled.

Listen here! We’re live 12 Noon Pacific/3 PM Eastern, and on demand thereafter.

Original posted on ACOwatch.com.