The Physician's Perspective: How Knowledge of Accountable Care Organization Requirements Impact Ability to Meet Patients Needs in Southern California-based ACOs

In 2010, President Obama signed into law comprehensive healthcare reform in the United States. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), was designed to provide medical benefits to 4.3 million uninsured Americans and reduce healthcare expenditures while improving quality of care and patient outcomes. The law included the creation of the accountable care organization (ACO), a healthcare delivery and financial model with physicians having a significant and central role in the success or failure of the ACO model. The current study explored the physician's level of knowledge about the ACO model's Triple Aim goals and performance measures, and how the ACO requirements affected their ability to meet patient needs. The study employed a quantitative research design using original data collected through an electronic survey from a sample of physicians in southern California ACOs. Analyses of the data identified a gap in knowledge of the Triple Aim goals, quality performance domains, and aspects of performance indicators of the current ACO model. The physician perspective also illuminated the competing goals of delivering care while reducing costs under the model's current design Findings showed most aspects of the ACO requirements had a slightly positive impact on the physicians' ability to meet patient needs inside southern California-based ACOs. The physician perspective also illuminated competing goals for delivering care while reducing costs under the model's current design. concluded by this study, improvements are needed in education and professional training to (1) close the knowledge gap among physicians, (2) implement the tenets of systems thinking, (3) outsource technology, (4) let physicians clinical experts, and (4) shift the ACO culture to a learning organization.