ACOs could thrive even if healthcare law is overturned, experts say
Accountable care organizations are expected to thrive even if the Supreme Court throws out the Affordable Care Act, healthcare law experts said Tuesday.
Accountable care organizations have garnered enough support from providers that they are likely to move forward, regardless of whether the law that created them is upheld by the Supreme Court, according to legal analysts at the American Health Lawyers Association's annual meeting in Chicago on Tuesday.
Julie Kass, a member of the Health Law Group at Ober Kaler, speculated that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services would likely implement a similarly structured shared saving model if the law is invalidated, the Bureau of National Affairs reported.
“My guess is that they would have to find some new statutory reason for it, or shift everything to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation and say ‘it's an innovative program now,''' Kass said, according to BNA.
ACOs could prove to be beneficial to long-term care providers, experts say, because they help coordinate care for hospital patients who are discharged to post-acute care settings. However, some research has indicated that ACOs may be a mixed bag for elderly beneficiaries.
