UConn Health has selected Hartford HealthCare to explore the formation of an Accountable Care Organization (ACO), concluding a search started last fall.
This is not a merger or sharing of assets, UConn announced.
Rather, it said, an ACO is a group of doctors, hospitals and other healthcare providers who voluntarily collaborate to coordinate care and ensure that shared patients receive the best care at the lowest possible cost, otherwise known as “value-based care.”
“Most major systems in Connecticut participate in an ACO of some sort and it was time for UConn Health to do the same,” said Dr. Andrew Agwunobi, CEO of UConn Health and executive vice president for health affairs, who shared his interest in an ACO in an interview earlier this year. “When we set out to find an ACO partner we sought one with the experience, and demonstrated value-based care results, that was willing to customize a model to fit the needs of UConn Health. This would include shared leadership of the future ACO. In Hartford HealthCare we found all of that and a local leadership excited and engaged to partner with us to make a difference for patients in the communities we jointly serve.”
UConn Health’s search for potential ACO partners began in October with a letter to more than a dozen Connecticut healthcare organizations interested in allowing UConn Health to co-lead the development of joint initiatives to improve health outcomes and reduce the costs of achieving such outcomes.
