The Spring ACO Coalition Meeting: From Finding Value to the Future of the ACA

Business Wire

With keynote speaker Darius Lakdawalla, PhD, and featured presenter Avik Roy, the May 4-5, 2017, meeting of the ACO and Emerging Healthcare Delivery Coalition® in Scottsdale, Arizona, offered attendees insights into the impact of what is happening in Washington, DC, and in health systems across America. The coalition is an initiative of The American Journal of Managed Care.®

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- A day after House Republicans voted to send the American Health Care Act to the Senate, Forbes opinion editor Avik Roy put it in context: the “behemoth” that is the US health system has grown up over a half-century and combines the worst features of delivery systems from across the globe—high prices, inefficiency, and lack of coverage.

“We have all the cost inefficiencies of a highly public system without any of the actual coverage gains that you would expect from a truly government system,” said Roy, speaking in Scottsdale, Ariz., at The American Journal of Managed Care® (AJMC®)’s spring meeting of the ACO and Emerging Healthcare Delivery Coalition,® May 4-5, 2017.

Roy’s address and appearance on a panel about the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) offered a high point in an information-packed conference, which also featured:

Keynote speaker Darius Lakdawalla, PhD, of the University of Southern California, who discussed the challenge of measuring what matters to patients as the health system moves to value-based payment structures.
The AJMC® 2020 Panel Discussion series, which featured insights from health system leaders bringing legal services to Medicaid patients in post-Katrina New Orleans and another tackling how to get the most out of each patient visit, particularly among seniors, as well as the founder of a health information technology organization devoted to care transformation through precision medicine.
Insights from ACO Coalition Chair Anthony Slonim, MD, DrPH, the CEO of Renown Health, and moderator Clifford Goodman, PhD, of The Lewin Group. “The key takeaway from this meeting is that we are making a lot of progress,” Goodman said. “We are making a lot of progress in understanding what value means and how we might bridge better understanding of value into decision making.”

The next ACO Coalition meeting is set for October 26-27, 2017, in Nashville, Tenn. For information, visit the Coalition website here.

About The American Journal of Managed Care®:

The American Journal of Managed Care® (AJMC®) is a peer-reviewed, MEDLINE-indexed journal that keeps readers on the forefront of health policy by publishing research relevant to industry decision makers as they work to promote the efficient delivery of high-quality care. AJMC.com is the essential website for managed care professionals, distributing industry updates daily to leading stakeholders. Other titles in the AJMC® family include The American Journal of Accountable Care® and two evidence-based series, Evidence-Based Oncology™ and Evidence-Based Diabetes Management™. These comprehensive offerings bring together stakeholder views from payers, providers, policymakers and other industry leaders in managed care. To order reprints of articles appearing in AJMC® publications, please contact Dr. Jeff Prescott at (609) 716-7777, x 331.