UC-Berkeley has released a survey on safety-net health care providers' readiness to participate in accountable care organizations, Modern Healthcare reports.
Study Details
The survey -- funded by the Blue Shield of California Foundation -- was pilot-tested in two California counties (Evans, Modern Healthcare, 3/28).
Twenty-six providers from Alameda County and 25 providers from Orange County completed the 90-question survey (UC-Berkeley survey, March 2012).
Survey questions focused on providers' characteristics and capabilities in nine areas:
- Finances and contracts;
- IT structure;
- Leadership and governance;
- Legal and regulatory issues and barriers;
- Management of clinical care;
- Organizational mission and population served;
- Overall assessment of ACO readiness;
- Partnerships; and
- Performance reporting (Modern Healthcare, 3/28).
Respondents rated their readiness in those areas using a scale of 1 to 9, with 9 being the highest level of readiness.
Key Findings
The survey found that safety-net providers reported the highest level of readiness in the organizational mission and population served categories, with an average readiness rating of 5.69.
Other top readiness categories reported by safety-net providers include:
- Managing clinical care, which had an average readiness rating of 5.33;
- Performance reporting, which had an average readiness rating of 5.20;
Providers reported having the lowest levels of readiness in:
- Partnerships, which had an average readiness rating of 4.82;
- Finance and contracts, which had an average readiness rating of 4.47; and
- Legal and regulatory issues and barriers, which had an average readiness rating of 4.23 (UC-Berkeley survey, March 2012).