CONTROLLING COSTS
HOW CAN WE GET SPIRALING HEALTH CARE COSTS UNDER CONTROL? ACOS MAY BE ONE ANSWER, ELIZABETH TRACEY REPORTS
Accountable care organizations or ACOs are one way of delivering healthcare that may help keep spiraling healthcare costs under control. Edward Miller, dean of the School of Medicine at Johns Hopkins, says this model may not actually lessen the amount of money spent on such care, but may help rein it in.
MILLER: I’m not quite sure it will reduce it. I think it will flatten the curve. I would say that if you say healthcare costs can be no greater than the rate of inflation, not medical inflation, true inflation, say that’s 1.8 percent or 2 percent, and medical inflation is running at 4.5 percent, if you say to the ACO I’m sorry you’re going to get 1.5-2 percent then you’re going to have to live within that. And then when you start to do that, then you start to make some real choices about where you’re going to put your resources. :31
ACOs will agree to provide all care for a group of people and employ a number of strategies to reduce costs. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.
