But the government seems to be addressing one of the big concerns -- that ACOs could somehow fall afoul of antitrust rules, as an ACO often brings together practices in competition with each other. The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission issued a joint statement Thursday saying they would set up a "safety zone" for ACOs whose participants do not have more than 30 percent of the combined share of the same service in a patient's main service area, and for hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers that are "non-exclusive" to ACOs. ACOs outside of the "safety zone" may qualify for expedited 90-day reviews by the agencies. [Read the rules here: http://www.ftc.gov/os/fedreg/2011/03/110331acofrn.pdf]

Of course, not everyone's convinced by the ACO model. In response to the draft rules release, Keith Kosel, senior director of social sciences practice with the GPO VHA Inc., said a bundled payment model might be better. In an article he co-wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine recently, Kosel argued that the ACO model might cause health care facilities to "incur substantial costs that will not be offset with financial gains for at least three years."

Back to HCB News

More Industry Headlines