Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers, who come together voluntarily to give coordinated high quality care. According to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS), 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. An ACO that operates well should save money while delivering quality care.

Unfortunately, a new study published in the journal Health Affairs indicates that there is a lack of attention to surgical care in ACOs. Instead, the study found that ACOs emphasized coordinated care for chronic conditions. Surgeons and other specialists play an important role in health care delivery, but surgeons’ behavior is rarely altered by the ACO. Generally, an ACO will only be able to limit, to some degree, referrals to surgery.

Medpage Today reports that there may be a missed opportunity here. Surgery represents half of hospital expenditures. Still, 86 percent of ACO respondents placed reduction of unnecessary surgery as a lower priority for the ACO’s strategic plan. Additionally, the study shows that surgery is not the only ignored specialty.

ACOs are generally not prioritizing specialties, though these professionals are eager to know how they can fit into a coordinated care model. Integration of these specialties, especially surgery, can help maximize efficient care when surgery and other expensive procedures are unavoidable.