By Jennifer Lubell - February 15, 2012

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If folks in the health care industry continue on their hesitant path to use the term “Accountable Care Organization” in describing the latest agreement or venture to coordinate patient care, I may just have to change the name of my monthly newsletter.

So long, ACO Business News. Hello…Clinical Integration Monthly? Or how about Health Care Delivery Innovation News? That has a ring to it.

As Jim Hinton, president and CEO of Presbyterian Healthcare Services, observed at a recent press event hosted by the Premier healthcare alliance, “the term ‘ACO’ is being used pretty loosely” to describe a broader movement toward a higher accountability standard. Some in the industry would prefer to use the term “clinical integration” to assess this growing trend.

Children’s Mercy Hospitals & Clinics, in describing its newly formed Children’s Mercy Pediatric Care Network, says that this is an integrated care model, not necessarily an ACO. While many of the features are similar to those of an ACO, “We have not technically formed an ACO, not in the context used by the federal government,” said Bob Finuf, vice president/executive director of the new network.

Still others, such as Mark Lutes, an attorney in the Health Care and Life Sciences practice at Epstein Becker & Green, questions whether the term “ACO” is even useful. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t get us too far in understanding what’s underneath” the health system delivery reform movement, he recently told ACO Business News.

“ACO” suggests that there will be a single collaboration of providers across multiple contracts and payers, he explained. “What’s more likely to happen is that various payers will advance a variety of value-based purchasing metrics — many will be effectuated through amendments to existing contracts with providers. There will be a range of bundles and episode payments as well as quality bonuses.”

All of this said, do readers think the term “ACO” will eventually become obsolete? What, in your opinion, is the most accurate way to describe these care models?