ACOs could disrupt payer market

As accountable care organizations continue cropping up throughout the country, including 106 new collaborations with Medicare announced Thursday, some healthcare experts predict the payer market could be severely disrupted, FierceHealthcare reported. Because one in 10 Americans is now treated by an ACO provider and ACOs are expected to significantly grow in the coming months, former Obama adviser and University of Pennsylvania medical ethicist Zeke Emanuel said ACOs could make traditional insurance companies less relevant over the next 10 years.

"I do think that many of them are going to begin to ask, especially if the exchanges expand, why are they contracting with the insurance companies as the middle men, they could just go into the exchange themselves," Emanuel said. --Read the full article at FierceHealthcare