Robert Wood Johnson Medicine • Spring 2011 • Population Science

RWJMS Looks to Launch
Accountable Care Organization
The Patient Protection
and Affordable Care
Act, which the U.S.
Congress passed in 2010, will
gradually but profoundly
change the landscape of
health care. One of the
reform-related changes is the
development of accountable
care organizations (ACOs),
a model already successfully
used at the Mayo and
Cleveland Clinics. These
integrated delivery systems
convene under one umbrella
the many stakeholders involved
in health care delivery,
including patients, physicians,
hospitals, and payers.
In 2011, UMDNJ-Robert
Wood Johnson Medical
School is working to launch
Robert Wood Johnson Partners,
one of the few ACOs
affiliated with an academic
health campus. “Academic
health campuses are ideally
suited to the goals of the
ACO,” says Alfred F. Tallia,
MD ’78, MPH, professor
and chair, Department of
Family Medicine and Community
Health. “We are
committed to achieving
excellence in each of our
missions: in clinical care,
education, scientific discovery,
and community health.
Together, these missions reinforce
the reform-related
goals of an ACO, such as
improving the quality of
health care, increasing efficiencies,
reducing costs, and
eliminating health care
inequalities.”
The ACO system emphasizes
quality over quantity.
Providers will be paid based
on outcomes achieved,
rather than on the volume
of services provided. It is
hoped that this incentive will
provide physicians with the
freedom to focus on improving
the underlying systems of
care. The all-faculty Robert
Wood Johnson Medical
Group will be just one of
the clinical providers in the
new ACO, which will also
include volunteer faculty
and physicians at hospitals
affiliated with RWJMS and
Robert Wood Johnson University
Hospital (RWJUH).
Dr. Tallia anticipates that the
new ACO will serve 200,000
people in a six-county area
of central New Jersey.
“Given the changes driven
by health care reform, all
providers of care will need
to be more efficient than ever
before in delivering their
services,” explained Stephen
K. Jones, FACHE, president
and chief executive officer,
RWJUH. “Academic medical
centers like ours are best
positioned to take the lead
nationally in shaping this
new system. We believe that
the ACO model — which is
driven by quality, not quantity,
of care — is a natural
extension of our mission
and allows us to integrate
Alfred F. Tallia, MD ’78, MPH
“We are committed to
achieving excellence
in each of our
missions: in clinical
care, education,
scientific discovery,
and community
health. Together, these
missions reinforce
the reform-related
goals of an ACO,
such as improving the
quality of health care,
increasing efficiencies,
reducing costs, and
eliminating health care
inequalities.”
— Alfred F. Tallia, MD ’78, MPH
our efforts with faculty and
private physicians in meeting
the needs of our patients.”
Patients will choose an
ACO supported “medical
home” for their health care.
Medical homes are primary
care–oriented practices that
promote well-being through
enhanced relationships between
patients and members
of a practice team.
They focus care on the
full range of cost-effective
services for individuals
and families —
from prevention and
acute care to chronic
disease management.
Working with the
health care team,
patients would first identify
their own health care objectives
and develop a coordinated
plan to reach them.
Using the resources of the
system, they would be connected
to a gym, a counselor,
or a nutritionist. Second, if
they pursue their goals conscientiously,
they would be
rewarded with lower insurance
rates by their payer,
who will also be a member
of the ACO.
Patients would have access
to important parts of their
electronic medical records
such as medication lists, medication
allergies, and laboratory
data. They can ask their
physician a question using
electronic messaging. “If
people can more successfully
engage with us to develop
their own healthcare goals,”
says Dr. Tallia, “they are
much more likely to achieve
those goals and less likely to
get lost within the healthcare
system. ACOs will facilitate
this by aligning everyone
to meet those shared
goals.”
— K.O’N.
JOHN EMERSON
Robert Wood Johnson ■ MEDICINE 5