Mental healthcare access and treatment was down by 24% and no change was detected for PRO's after ACO enrollment. 

Being enrolled in an accountable care organization (ACO) won’t do much to improve a patient’s mental healthcare access or symptom burden; in fact, ACO enrollment has proven to hamper access to care and decrease patient-reported outcomes for folks with depression and anxiety disorders, a new Health Affairs study says. [Patient Engagement HIT] 

The data, obtained via email, shows that Medicare beneficiaries newly enrolled in Medicare ACOs see a 24 percent drop in mental healthcare treatment during the year, plus no relative improvement in their anxiety and depression symptoms.

These findings come as the United States healthcare system looks to ACOs as the gold standard in chronic disease management.

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