Accountable Care Organizations

At the time of this writing, it is hard to predict the course of more fundamental efforts to reform healthcare. The Obama administration has outlined ambitious plans to change the way healthcare in the United States is financed from the ground up. These reform efforts face several legal challenges that will ultimately be resolved by the Supreme Court of the United States, with unforeseeable results.

Not all of these reforms are relevant here, but those that focus on changing healthcare from a system that rewards the quantity of care to one that rewards quality of care are directly related to meaningful use. Most notable in the evolution of meaningful use is the concept of the accountable care organization (ACO).