The results of a new study in the March 2016 issue of the journal Health Affairs comparing accountable care organizations (ACOs) that include hospitals in their networks to those that do not finds hospitals that are in urban areas, are nonprofit, or have a relatively small share of Medicare patients are more likely to participate in ACOs than other hospitals. Whether an ACO includes hospitals does not appear to affect its capacity to manage hospital-related aspects of patient care.
The study can be accessed at http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/35/3/431.full?keytype=ref&siteid=healthaff&ijkey=kPhy0qWZLvFAc.