Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are one of the most prominent health care delivery reforms in the marketplace today and they continue to grow.The evidence of their proliferation is undisputed, but evidence on their impact in the commercial market is hard to come by and, in some cases, lackluster.  In 2016, CPR convened a group of seven purchasers and a subject matter expert to develop a set of tools to hold health plans accountable for greater transparency into their ACO arrangements. Their months-long collaboration resulted in the creation of the Standardized Plan ACO Report for Customers – a toolkit of resources that purchasers can use to evaluate health plan strategies, ensure they are delivering on their promise, and assess their impact.

How to use the SPARC:

Once you’ve downloaded SPARC, start with the How-To Guide, which outlines the resources available for purchasers to hold their health plans accountable for ACO programs and reporting and how to use them. Want information before you download or purchase? Visit the SPARC page.

SPARC includes:

• Health Plan Request for Information (Excel):  The RFI can be fielded to current or prospective health plans to get a better sense of their ACO strategy, such as what programs they offer and in which geographies.
• Model Contract Language (Word): The Model Contract Language can be used by purchasers when contracting with a health plan that has an ACO strategy in place, whether it be a product or attribution model, or both.  The language outlines purchaser expectations for the health plan’s ACO arrangements, as well as the reporting on ACO performance.
• Performance Guarantees (Word): The Performance Guarantees can be used by purchasers alongside the Model Contract Language to ensure that their health plan partner is meeting mutually-agreed upon performance standards, including use of the CAHPS ACO-9 Survey, movement to shared risk, and more.
• Provider Checklist Questionnaire (Word): The Provider Checklist can be used by purchasers when there is an opportunity to meet directly with providers in an ACO. These questions can help purchasers learn more about the arrangement and how the ACO operates.
• Standard Plan ACO Report (Excel): The flagship SPARC resource, purchasers can request that their health plans use the Standard Plan ACO Report regularly to share information on the performance of their ACOs in a meaningful, quick-to-digest, format. Widespread requests for the report will help to create a standard for meaningful and comprehensive reporting on ACO performance so that purchaser-customers can more readily assess how these arrangements impact their member population. In 2020, CPR updated the report template in alignment with new quality metrics from the AMP Commercial ACO Measure Set, and refined the instructions to make the tool relevant for both attribution and product-based ACO models.

Before downloading SPARC, please review the End User Agreement.