Final answer:
ACOs (Accountable Care Organizations) are groups of healthcare providers focused on coordinated high-quality care for Medicare patients, aiming to decrease healthcare costs and improve care quality.
Step-by-step explanation:
The correct answer to the question is A. ACOs, which stands for Accountable Care Organizations. These are groups of providers committed to providing high-quality care to Medicare patients in a coordinated manner. ACOs represent a movement in healthcare to shift away from the traditional fee-for-service model towards a more value-based care approach. The goal of Accountable Care Organizations is to bring together various healthcare stakeholders—including doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers—to ensure that patients, especially the chronically ill, get the right care at the right time, avoiding unnecessary duplication of services and preventing medical errors.
Organizations around the world strive to reduce the cost of health care while increasing the quality of care given. This requires the sharing of digital records among health providers and the implementation innovative strategies to manage and coordinate care. ACOs are at the forefront of tackling adverse selection in insurance markets and promoting preventive health measures to enhance patient outcomes.