Industry Insights

The Healthcare IT Guy's recent blog about the analytical systems that ACOs will require does an excellent job of framing the issue of the IT needs of ACOs and other similar organizations.  We would like to highlight several points from this article.

First, these systems will require data integration capabilities of a type not typically seen in hospitals.  Hospital systems typically integrate data though the HL7 stan

As has occurred in most demonstration programs in the past, CMS is expected to send ACO applicants the historical data for the members that will be attributed to the ACO's primary care physicians.  But what should you do with that data?  Time to crank up Excel and go to work? 

Analytics can't be an afterthought for ACOs.  It can't be something that's loaded onto the overworked hospital accountant who's already preparing the financial justification for the new linear accelerator and reconciling last year's Blue Cross payments.  It can't be done in spreadsheets.  It's too important to be rele

Everyone involved in healthcare knows about ACOs.  Every healthcare publication contains at least one article about them.  Every seminar has a session describing them.  They're on every consultant's lips.  Google "ACO" and you'll find dozens of references to them (along with "ant colony optimization" and the American Cornhole Organization, which presumably have nothing to do with health reform).