Hold the Mayo?
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In a nine page letter last week to CMS, the Mayo Clinic has definitely outlined its position on ACOs. Under the current proposed rules they, like many others, have publicly chosen not to participate. Mayo goes on to say that the proposed regulations are “in conflict” with the way it currently runs it Medicare operations.
Although the Mayo Clinic is only one voice in a growing chorus of dissent, I can’t help but wonder if their voice is louder than the rest. In a public letter to Senators Ted Kennedy and Max Baucus on June 2, 2010, President Obama stated that "we should ask why places like the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, and other institutions can offer the highest quality care at costs well below the national norm. We need to learn from their successes and replicate those best practices across our country. That’s how we can achieve reform that preserves and strengthens what’s best about our health care system, while fixing what is broken." With that type of endorsement, it would hold to reason that if Mayo is a model we can all learn from and even strive to replicate, yet they aren’t going to participate in ACOs, would it be logical for anyone to participate?
I know the Mayo model is certainly not the only way to skin the accountable care cat, but they are certainly held in high esteem by most in the medical community and even more so in the political community. Although there are those who believe that one voice alone will not be enough to derail the ACO train, I do believe that Mayo’s position will significantly drive the outcome of the final rule. As a wise friend of mine once said – “Sometimes you have to count the votes, and sometimes you have to weigh the votes.”
