Huron Healthcare Announces Podcast Addressing Accountable Care Organizations

CHICAGO--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Huron Consulting Group, a leading provider of business consulting services, today announced a complimentary Huron Healthcare podcast entitled, “Accountable Care Organizations – Proceed with Caution.” Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are a major topic of conversation among healthcare leaders, who continue to evaluate whether forming one is the right path for their organization.

“Accountable Care Organizations – Proceed with Caution.”

In the podcast, Gordon Mountford, executive vice president of Huron Healthcare, shares his perspective on ACOs. He also discusses what he has been hearing from top healthcare executives across the country, including the importance of:

• Developing a prudent approach to exploring ACO formation while continuing to make progress on improving quality and affordability;
• Recognizing that for many hospitals and health systems, pursuing formation of an ACO may not be the best way to accelerate progress toward meeting quality and affordability goals; and
• Calculating the true organizational costs of developing an ACO, and weighing those costs against the short-term and long-term benefits of having an ACO framework in place.

This podcast is one in a series focused on issues that affect a hospital’s bottom line as well as providing best practices to achieve financial success in the new healthcare landscape. To listen to the Huron Healthcare podcasts visit: http://www.huronconsultinggroup.com/instance.aspx?instanceId=2487.

Mountford also authored a recent opinion piece on this topic for HealthLeaders. The article is available at: http://www.huronconsultinggroup.com/researchdetails.aspx?articleId=2917.

In addition to the podcast series, Huron Healthcare published a series of briefings on healthcare reform that address ACOs, value-based purchasing and other healthcare reform topics available at http://www.huronconsultinggroup.com/category.aspx?categoryId=2366.

To speak with Mountford or another one of Huron Healthcare’s experts about ACOs or other issues affecting hospitals, health systems, and academic medical centers, please contact:

Jennifer Frost Hennagir
312-880-3260
[e-mail]

Jenna Nichols
312-880-5693
[e-mail]

About Huron Healthcare

Huron Healthcare partners with clients to provide comprehensive performance improvement solutions that improve quality, increase revenue, reduce expenses, and increase physician, patient, and employee satisfaction across the healthcare enterprise. Clients include national and regional integrated healthcare systems, leading academic medical centers, community hospitals and physician practices. Modern Healthcare ranked Huron Healthcare third on its 2010 list of the top 15 largest healthcare management consulting firms. Learn more at www.huronconsultinggroup.com/healthcare or follow us on Twitter: @Huron

About Huron Consulting Group

Huron Consulting Group helps clients in diverse industries improve performance, comply with complex regulations, resolve disputes, recover from distress, leverage technology, and stimulate growth. The Company teams with its clients to deliver sustainable and measurable results. Huron provides services to a wide variety of both financially sound and distressed organizations, including leading academic institutions, healthcare organizations, Fortune 500 companies, medium-sized businesses, and the law firms that represent these various organizations. Learn more at www.huronconsultinggroup.com.