Imagine health care that helps you PREVENT ILLNESS instead of just treating it...
that gives you easy access to a TEAM OF DOCTORS working together for you...
that connects all your care providers through ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS...
that offers you treatment OPTIONS BASED ON PROOF of what works best...
that meets your needs DAY OR NIGHT and that controls costs for you, and for America.
You don’t have to just imagine this kind of health care.
It exists today in America's Accountable Care Organizations.
You don't have to imagine great health care, it exists
today in America's Accountable Care Organizations.
Physician-led organizations striving to improve health care quality and cut costs are already forming “medical homes” and “accountable care organizations.” By focusing on patient needs through accountability, communication, and care coordination, these medical groups are providing real answers for reforming American health care.
Know the 5 Real Answers!
These five principles are shared by
Accountable Care providers who take
responsibility for the cost and quality
of the care they provide you.
- Prevention
- Care Team Coordination
- Electronic Records
- Evidence-based Treatment
- Day or Night Access
Prevention
The best way to control health care costs is to stay healthy. Accountable Care Organizations believe in wellness and preventive care. Reminders for tests, screenings, and immunizations are routine. Health information, classes, and advice are easily available.
Team Coordination
Care teams and care coordination are very important when you need to see more than one doctor, or you need to be hospitalized. Coordinating your care among all your care providers ensures that each knows what the other is doing for you.
Electronic Records
Shared electronic medical records help both your primary care doctor and specialists know your entire health history, the drugs you have been prescribed, and your test results. This improves the cost, quality, and safety of the care you receive.
Evidence-Based Treatment
Scientific advancements are so rapid that no single physician can stay on top of all the current and best treatment options. ACOs strive to support their patients and doctors by providing information about up-to-date treatments based on research and evidence.
Day or Night Access
Providing the right care at the right time is the goal of ACOs, so they endeavor to provide professional medical advice day or night, in offices, by phone, and even via e-mail. Quick treatment helps maintain health and reduces cost.
Stay Informed
How Can Accountable Care Help You?
To find out what the benefits of accountable care are for you, fill out this brief questionnaire.
Do you or a member of your family have a chronic medical condition? (diabetes, COPD, coronary artery disease, obesity, asthma, etc...)
How many different doctors or specialists do you see in a year?
Have you been hospitalized in the last 5 years?
What is your age?
What is your gender?
What is your marital status?
Do you have children under 21?
Do you take care of another adult?
5 Questions to Ask About Your Doctor
Ask yourself the following 5 questions, and then find out why the answers matter.
Life expectancy of American men and women is less than other industrialized nations.
Kaiser Family Foundation Global Health database, 2008.
Although nearly 46 million Americans are uninsured, the United States spends more on health care than other industrialized nations, and those countries provide health insurance to all their citizens.
OECD Health Data 2005 and 2006.
Commonwealth Fund National Scorecard on U.S. Health System Performance, 2006.
Chronically ill U.S. patients have the most negative access, coordination, and safety experiences (2008) compared to chronically ill patients of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
'In "Chronic Condition: Experiences of Patients with Complex Health Care Needs, in
Eight Countries, 2008: Chronically ill U.S. patients have the most negative access, coordination, and safety experiences.."' by Cathy Schoen, Robin Osborn, Sabrina K.H. How, Michelle M. Doty, and Jordon Peugh, Health Affairs, Nov. 13, 2008.
The United States has a higher rate of medical mistakes, medication errors, or lab errors than Canada; Australia; New Zealand; Germany; and the United Kingdom.
Analysis of 2005 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey of Sicker Adults; Schoen et al. 2005a. Source: Commonwealth Fund National Scorecard on U.S. Health System Performance, 2006
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) estimates that 44,00 to 99,000 patients die in hospitals each year due to medical errors.
Corrigan J, Kohn L, and Donaldson M, Eds. "To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System." Washington DC, the National Academies Press, 1999.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) estimates that 44,000 to 99,000 patients die in hospitals each year due to medical errors.
Corrigan J, Kohn L, and Donaldson M, Eds. To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System. Washington DC, the National Academies Press, 1999.
The Institute of Medicine estimates there are at least 1.5 million preventable adverse drug events in the U.S. every year.
"Preventing Medication Error," Institute of Medicine, July 2006 report.
It is estimated that unnecessary care or “overtreatment” kills 30,000 Americans a year--the equivalent of a 747 airliner crashing and killing everyone aboard once a week.
Overtreated by Shannon Brownlee, Bloomsbury, 2007.
The U.S. ranks last out of 16 industrialized countries on a measure of mortality amenable to medical care (deaths that might have been prevented with timely and effective care). Premature death rates are 68 percent higher than in the best-performing countries.
Why Not the Best? Results from the National Scorecard on U.S. Health System Performance, 2011. The Commonwealgth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System, October, 2011
U.S. patients reporting that medical records and test results were not available during a visit or that tests were duplicated unnecessarily was 30% higher than patients reporting in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom (2006).
'In "Chronic Condition: Experiences of Patients with Complex Health Care Needs, in Eight Countries, 2008: Chronically ill U.S. patients have the most negative access, coordination, and safety experiences.'" by Cathy Schoen, Robin Osborn, Sabrina K.H. How, Michelle M. Doty, and Jordon Peugh, Health Affairs, Nov. 13, 2008.
Reducing readmissions and hospitalizations for preventable conditions alone could save the Medicare program at least $12 billion per year.
HealthGrades. "The Sixth Annual Health Grades Patient Safety in American Hospitals Study." Golden, CO. HealthGrades Inc, April 2009.
America spends more per capita on health than all other countries in the world.
OECD Health Data 2005 and 2006.
America has the highest infant mortality rate among 23 other industrialized nations.
CIA: The World Fact Book, 2009
Fifty percent of Americans don’t get the recommended preventive care and screening tests that science recommends.
Commonwealth Fund National Scorecard on U.S. Health System Performance, 2011
Eighty-two percent of Americans don’t get the recommended health counseling and education for their conditions.
"The Quality of Health Care Delivered to Adults in the United States," Elizabeth A. McGlynn, Ph.D., Steven M. Asch, M.D., M.P.H., John Adams, Ph.D., Joan Keesey, B.A., Jennifer Hicks, M.P.H., Ph.D., Alison DeCristofaro, M.P.H., and Eve A. Kerr, M.D., M.P.H., New England Journal of Medicine, June 2003.
Medical errors are the eighth leading cause of death in the United States.
Corrigan J, Kohn L, and Donaldson M, Eds. "To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System." Washington DC, the National Academies Press, 1999.
Even as health care spending per capita has increased in the U.S. over the last three decades, the nation has fallen behind 12 other wealthy nations in 15-year survival for men and women at ages 45 and 65.
"What Changes in Survival Rates Tell Us About U.S. Health Care," Peter A. Muennig and Sherry A. Glied, Health Affairs, October 7, 2010
By 2005, 15-year survival rates for 45-year-old white women in the U.S. were lower than in all comparison countries; these rates had not even surpassed 1975 survival rates for Swiss, Swedish, Dutch, or Japanese women.
"What Changes in Survival Rates Tell Us About U.S. Health Care, Peter A. Muennig and Sherry A. Glied, Health Affairs, October 7, 2010
U.S. white men ages 45 and 65 experienced declines in their rankings in 15-year survival rates among the comparison countries, but they were not as dramatic as the declines in rankings for women.
"What Changes in Survival Rates Tell Us About U.S. Health Care," Peter A. Muennig and Sherry A. Glied, Health Affairs, October 7, 2010
