MEDICAL ECONOMICS


ACOs, Texas-style New rules allow “health care collaboratives”


Asa Lockhart, MD, of Tyler, testifies before the Senate Health and Human Services Committee in 2011 on legislation authorizing physicians, hospitals, and other health care providers in Texas to form collaboratives similar to accountable care organizations for the purpose of improving quality and reducing the cost of health care.


“These collabora- tives can be quite innovative


organizations.”


BY AMY LYNN SORREL A web of burdensome federal regulations and antitrust rules and hefty overhead costs are oft-cited stumbling blocks to physician involvement in accountable care organizations (ACOs). So perhaps it came as little surprise when the Texas Legislature, less than enamored with the federal health reform legislation that authorized the coordinated care models, came up with its own rendition. In 2011, state lawmakers passed Senate Bill 7. It created a Texas-style ACO, known as a health care collaborative (HCC), to encourage physicians, hospitals, and


June 2013 TEXAS MEDICINE 25


STEVE LEVINE


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