Quote to Note: ACOs Are Just Failed HMOs, but With More Power, WSJ, Letter to Editor, October 31, 2014

“ACOs closely resemble health –maintenance organizations in their basic structure of a lump-sum payment to cover a bundle of services, with financial risk for spending more than this sum.”

“Both create srong disincentives to refer, to hospitalize or so spend money taking care of sick patients."

"Both create strong incentives to cherry-pick health patients. This is how these organizations make money, if successful. Any profit will mostly go to fill corporate coffers and bloated executive paychecks. A few dollars my trickle down to those actually providing care.”

“If HMOs had lived up to their hype, why should we now need ACOs?"

Richard Amerling, MD

President, Assocation of American Physicians and Surgeons, New York