Title
Authorizing the Committee on Labor and Civil Service to hold hearings investigating ways that Accountable Care Organizations can help the City of Philadelphia reduce the cost and improve the quality of providing health care services to its citizens and employees.
Body
WHEREAS, Health care expenditures represent more than 17 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, with costs predicted to continue increasing in future years; and
WHEREAS, The City of Philadelphia plans to spend more than $120 million on health-related services to its citizens next year and over $400 million on health care benefits for its employees; and
WHEREAS, The fee-for-service payment structure that is standard in most health care plans, including in Medicare, creates few incentives for health care providers to reduce costs and improve the quality and efficiency of care provided to patients; and
WHEREAS, Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are health care provider organizations that are accountable for meeting the health care needs of a defined patient population, including the total cost of care and the quality and effectiveness of care; and
WHEREAS, Under the ACO model, a spending benchmark is established for the covered patient population - if the ACO is able to improve the quality of care provided to patients while reducing spending, the ACO receives some portion of the realized savings from the payor. In other words, ACOs have a financial incentive to reduce costs and improve the care provided to patients; and
WHEREAS, In 2009, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission identified ACOs as a potential tool for restructuring Medicare to improve the quality and contain the cost of providing care to patients; and
WHEREAS, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 authorized providers organized as ACOs that voluntarily meet certain quali...
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