Aurora Health Care, Wisconsin’s largest health care provider, has joined with Hartford health insurer Aetna to offer a new insurance product that offers a price guarantee for employers, The Milwaukee Business Journal reports.
The Aurora Accountable Care Network will offer cost savings that will be specific to each employer, with the potential for an average 10 percent reduction based on the employer’s past claims expenses, BizJournals.com reports. The plans with Aetna will be effective beginning Jan. 1, 2013.
The Aetna plans offered through the Aurora Accountable Care Network are designed for Wisconsin small and mid-sized businesses. Flexible solutions for large, self-funded employers are also available. The plans are fully insured and feature two tiers of benefits and copays.
Accountable care organizations were created under national health care reform as a type of payment and delivery reform model that seeks to tie provider reimbursements to quality metrics and reductions in the total cost of care for an assigned population of patients.
ACOs look similar to the health maintenance organizations (HMOs) of the 1980s and 1990s where enrollees typically paid limited co-payments, but were required to select a primary care physician through whom all care was coordinated. The difference between HMOs and the emerging ACOs is the new program puts the onus on the providers to provide quality health care.
