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Understanding accountable health care organizations

Five area hospital and doctor groups are trying out this new model, which is designed to improve the care of Medicare patients while lowering the costs of treating them

By Chelsea Conaboy

 |  Globe Staff  

  January 09, 2012

More than 150,000 seniors in eastern Massachusetts enrolled in traditional Medicare plans have received a letter in the mail - or will soon - informing them that their doctors are part of a newfangled health care system called an accountable care organization, or ACO, aimed at making sure they get “the right care, in the right place, at the right time.’’ It’s likely that few, if any, know just what an ACO is.

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