Accountable Care Organizations are coming, and it’s time to figure out how to actualize them for success. Evidence-based clinical guidelines are part of the tool set that ACOs will need to ensure that risk-sharing arrangements succeed.
This session focuses on the role of evidence-based guidelines for care management, which hold enormous promise for assisting ACOs in achieving their two main objectives simultaneously: managing healthcare costs while preserving or improving quality.

Successful ACOs will require increased utility of existing or enhanced tools- one of those being evidence-based guidelines. Serving as a communication base, evidence-based guidelines can assist ACOs in improving the quality and efficiency of the care they deliver. One can imagine many layers of communications built upon the hub of evidence-based guidelines, including service authorizations; case management documentation of patient goals, activities, and accomplishments; inpatient utilization management, and transition of care activities. With evidence-based guidelines as the base upon which all these activities and information sits, ACOs traveling down this path will find success.