Stories from Texas Medicine, June 2013

ACOs, Texas-Style - 07/17/2023

Burdensome federal regulations and antitrust rules and hefty overhead costs are oft-cited stumbling blocks to physician involvement in accountable care organizations (ACOs). So perhaps it came as little surprise when the Texas Legislature, less than enamored with the federal health reform legislation that authorized the coordinated care models, came up with its own rendition. In 2011, state lawmakers passed Senate Bill 7, which created a Texas-style ACO, known as a health care collaborative, to encourage physicians, hospitals, and payers to collaborate on more coordinated, cost-effective health care delivery. Now that the Texas Department of Insurance has adopted rules laying out a path to licensure as a collaborative, Texas physicians have a more flexible option that overcomes many of the barriers preventing them from stepping into integrated care models.