This concept paper from the Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron, OH describes its model for creating accountable care communities (ACC). An ACC is defined as a collaborative, integrated, and measurable multi-institutional approach that emphasizes shared responsibility for the health of the community,including health promotion and disease prevention, access to quality services, and healthcare delivery.
An ACC is not dependent upon local healthcare providers adopting a Medicare or other accountable care organization (ACO) infrastructure. It also differs from the ACO concept because an ACC encompasses not only medical care delivery systems, but the public health system, community stakeholders at the grassroots level, and community organizations whose work often encompasses the entire spectrum of the determinants of health. A final difference between the two concepts lies in the focus of the ACC on the health outcomes of the entire population of a defined geographic region, rather than a defined and targeted population of health consumers selected by an ACO for their efforts at payment and care delivery reform.
The ACC model is structured around the following components:
- Development of integrated medical and public health models to deliver clinical care in tandem with health promotion and disease prevention efforts;
- Utilization of interprofessional teams including, but not limited to, medicine, pharmacy, public health, nursing, social work, mental health, and nutrition to align care management and improve patient access and care coordination;
- Collaboration among health systems and public health, to enhance communication and planning efforts;
- Development of a robust health information technology infrastructure, to enable access to comprehensive, timely patient health information that facilitates the delivery of appropriate care and execution of effective care transitions across the continuum of providers;
- Implementation of an integrated and fully mineable surveillance and data warehouse functionality, to monitor and report systematically and longitudinally on the health status of the community, measuring change over time and assessing the impact of various intervention strategies;
- Development of a dissemination infrastructure to rapidly share best practices;
- Design and execution of a robust ACC implementation platform, specific tactics, and impact measurement tool; and
- Policy analysis and advocacy to facilitate ACC success and sustainability.
The Austen BioInnovation Institute also presented a webinar about the ACC model in 2013:
And authored this Health Affairs blog about the ACC model.
Ignatius Bau 