Patients

What is an ACO?

Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are group of health care providers, who come together voluntarily to give coordinated high quality care to their Medicare Fee-for-Service beneficiaries. The goal of coordinated care is to ensure that patients, especially the chronically ill, get the right care at the right time, while avoiding unnecessary duplication of services and preventing medical errors.

What will NEXT ACO of Nature Coast provide for me?

Our Physicians continue to provide quality, reliable and timely care at affordable costs. Our commitment is to improve the experience of your care, improving the health of our populations and at an affordable cost through improved coordination and communication between physicians and facilities.

Are my Medicare benefits changing because of the new ACO?

No. There will not be any changes to your Medicare benefits.

How will an ACO lead to an improved care for me?

You may not have to fill out as many medical forms that ask for the same information, the health care providers that you see all know what is going on with your health because they communicate with each other.

You may not have to have the same medical tests done over and over because your results are shared among your health care team. The providers participating in the ACO will become partners with you in making care decisions.

Your providers are incentivized to perform more preventive care and screenings thereby reducing the disease burden in the future.