One aspect of the new healthcare reform legislation concerns the accountability and coordination of care between hospitals and medical groups. Becoming an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) appears to be top of mind for many health system executives.

In a recent survey that the IDN Summit conducted and complete results released next week, we found that 48% of surveyed health system executives felt that ACOs represent a major opportunity to reduce healthcare costs. This is one of the few positive aspects of health reform in the opinion of these executives. Next week we’ll release the results of the survey.

Because of this heightened interest the Fall IDN Summit will continue a conversation started at the Spring Summit on ACOs. We’ll start the conference off with a Summit Panel Discussion: What Does it Mean to be an Accountable Care Organization? This discussion will be led by Michael Randall, Manager, The Camden Group who will be joined by three panelists: Chris O’Connor, President, Nexera, Inc; Randy Walter, Executive Vice President, Contracting, Enterprise Solutions, Inquisit and Marketing, Amerinet and Steven Wegner, JD, MD, President, North Carolina Community Care Network.

Next, Frank Cirillo, Senior VP and Chief Restructuring Officer, New York Health & Hospitals Corporation and Kimberly Mulqueen, Principal, Enterprise Transformation, Health Sciences, Deloitte Consulting LLP will discuss what the NYHHC has learned about becoming an ACO during their recent reorganization in Leading Change: The Reorganization of the Nation's Largest Public Hospital System.

ACOs will be a hot topic of conversation during the Healthcare Reform Panel Discussion led by industry veteran Mike Langlois, Interim Vice President of Materials Management, Resurrection Health Care. Mike will be joined by Kimberly Mulqueen, Principal, Enterprise Transformation, Health Sciences, Deloitte Consulting LLP; David Reed, Vice President of Operations, Vice President of Healthcare Business Solutions, Corporate Compliance Officer, Cook Medical and Dr. David Tam, Chief Administrative Officer, Palomar Pomerado Hospital.

Troy Trygstad, PharmD., MBA, PhD, Director of the Network Pharmacist Program, Community Care of North Carolina rounds out Tuesday presentations on ACOs with a  late afternoon session discussing the role of Pharmacy operations in an ACO. Troy presents The Role of the Health System Pharmacist in Accountable Care Organizations beginning at 2:45 pm.

Certainly Chuck Lauer will be quizzing the Thought Leadership panelists on their opinions of ACOs during Wednesday’s General Session. Chuck will be joined by Ben Cutler, CEO, US Health Group; Michael Israel, President & CEO, Westchester Medical Center and Thomas Sadvary, CEO, Scottsdale Healthcare.

A recent article from Becker’s Hospital Review does a really good job of highlighting the issues still to be resolved concerning ACOs. Read more.