First few Article Sentences
Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are provider-based organizations that take responsibility for meeting the health care needs of a defined population with the goal of simultaneously improving health, improving patient experience and reducing per capita costs. It is the latest trend to restrain the growth in US healthcare spending. It represents an attempt to address the problems of a fragmented, largely fee-for-service-based medical care system that rewards provision of services rather than achievement of outcomes, contributing to rapid growth in health care spending (now over 17% of GDP) and a system in which as much as 30% of costs are generated because of overuse, underuse, and misuse of health care services.