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The goal of accountable care organizations (ACOs) and other plans that shift financial risk from insurers to those delivering health care is to provide better, more coordinated patient care while saving money through the elimination of unnecessary services, like duplicated tests or treatments of little value.
A new study in the American Journal of Managed Care by Commonwealth Fund–supported researchers compares the effectiveness of a Medicare ACO with traditional Medicare, which has been confirmed in earlier research, as well as with a private Medicare Advantage (MA) plan. The researchers used data from one large delivery system — Banner Health, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona — between 2010 and 2014.