If They Build It, Will Anybody Come?

Health systems are telling CMS that, as proposed in the agency's draft rule, the Medicare accountable care organization program may not attract participants. Those types of comments are coming even from health systems that have been touted as the types of organizations that are already doing many of the activities envisioned for Medicare ACOs, such as coordinating patient care between providers and assessing provider performance through a list of defined outcome measures, and so had been thought most likely to sign up.