Thursday, March 22, 2012

Deciphering the Alphabet Soup of Health Reform

Knickman, James R. "Deciphering the Alphabet Soup of Health Reform." The Huffington Post, March 20, 2012.

From the opinion: "Shortly after the Affordable Care Act was passed nearly two years ago, I spent a lot of time talking to people about the key elements of the law, how it would not only expand health care coverage but also support changes to improve quality while keeping costs in check. When I talked about these delivery system reforms, my favorite joke was to put up a slide with a mermaid, a unicorn, and the words "accountable care organization" and point out that no one had ever seen any of these things in real life.

Today, we're starting to see accountable care organizations take shape, but to many of us, they remain as mysterious as mermaids. The whole alphabet soup of health care payment and delivery models is dizzying: PCMHs, HHs, BHOs, ACOs! OMG, what do all these things mean?!" Read more