ABSTRACT
As discussed in Chapter 1, there is a growing imperative for implementing models of healthcare delivery in the United States, which maximizes beneficial outcomes per dollar of expenditure through managed competition, and ACOs are one of the latest innovations to address that growing challenge by means of technological and procedural advances. However, as with all new technologies, there is the corresponding demand for capital investment, often stated by the adage “No Bucks, No Buck Rogers.”1 To increase the probability of success in ACO formation, prospective participants should closely examine all aspects of the investment. As additional information becomes available regarding the operating performance and capital requirements of ACO formations, the nature of the preinvestment analysis should trend toward being less of a forecast based on hypothetical assumptions and more an empirically grounded benchmarking to normative industry data.
