Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are rapidly gaining importance within the domain of corporate wellness, presenting new opportunities for forward-looking employers. In particular, there is a growing interest in the ACO model as a way to monitor and improve the health of a covered employer population.
Here’s how it works. ACOs replace traditional “fee-for-service” healthcare with a “pay for performance” model in which providers are reimbursed based on quality care, patient safety, patient outcomes, and overall costs. Reimbursements are based partially on an ACO’s ability to improve and monitor the health of its covered population, with careful tracking of risk factors related to diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and other chronic, preventable conditions.
Once employers and ACOs are connected, the BioIQ technology platform becomes the central hub for sharing data, driving participation, monitoring progress, and tracking wellness measures. Incenting employees to stay healthy and engaged leads to greater cost sharing between the employer and the ACO. Everybody is held accountable for improvement.
While these liaisons are in their infancy, forward-looking employers are demonstrating how they can work with ACOs to share both the cost and the responsibility for population health. It all comes down to coordination via shared data, which is why some of the nation’s largest health plans, ACOs, and disease management companies have partnered with BioIQ to measure the health of their members.