Research on Physician Opinions of Accountable Care Organizations Reveals Skepticism

Research on Physician Opinions of Accountable Care Organizations Reveals Skepticism

New research from RNA Search Inc reveals that although Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are growing in prominence and number, physicians remain skeptical of value-based care and its impact to physician autonomy and patient care. The results suggest that ACOs wishing to recruit physicians should invest more time educating them about how their roles will be affected.

The survey, in which more than 1,200 physicians responded, sought to better understand how much physicians know about value-based care and how they feel about it.

Key findings include:

• Physicians were most familiar with pay-for-performance models of care, and least familiar with shared savings arrangements.
• Physicians were most comfortable with pay-for-performance models and least comfortable with shared savings arrangements, suggesting that physicians were less comfortable with models that they knew least about.
• 60 percent of physician respondents said they would be willing to participate in an accountable care arrangement while 40 percent said they would not be willing to participate. Of the physicians willing to participate, Pay-for-Performance was the most preferred arrangement.
• Anesthesiologists were the most likely to consider participating in an ACO while Emergency Medicine physicians were the least likely to be willing to participate. Residents were more likely to embrace Accountable Care models than physicians who had been practicing for some time.
• More than 40 percent of respondents said Medicare is the payer they would be most willing to have an accountable care arrangement with.

"Physicians are willing to accept some risk for participating in ACOs but first want to know if it will impact their relationships with patients and how their progress will be measured," said Tony Barge, president of RNA Search Inc and executive. "This survey shows that healthcare facilities seeking to recruit physicians into ACO arrangements need to invest time in educating physicians on how ACOs will impact their care, not just how they will help the organization's bottom line."