ACOs and Medicaid: Challenges and Opportunities Teleconference

Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are attracting much interest as a promising new model for organizing the efficient delivery of high quality care. Most of the attention on ACOs in the wake of the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) has focused on Medicare ACOs and the highly anticipated new Medicare Shared Savings Program, but PPACA also enables states to adopt variations on the ACO model within Medicaid, either as standalone programs or as part of larger multi-payer systems. This webinar will examine the challenges and opportunities in adapting ACOs for the Medicaid population, including addressing the fiscal instability in state Medicaid programs, meeting the needs of a highly vulnerable and unstable patient population, structuring ACOs within existing fee-for-service or managed Medicaid programs, incorporating Medicaid supplemental payments (disproportionate share, “upper payment limit” and other payments) into the model, the need for states to obtain federal waivers to implement ACOs, designing ACOs for those dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, expanding coverage to the uninsured through an ACO system, and additional support that is available through various PPACA programs. Early Medicaid ACO models underway or under development in states will be profiled.