South Carolina hospitals and health care providers join federal care plan initiative

More than 130,000 Medicare beneficiaries in South Carolina will be served by Medicare Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) in South Carolina this year, according to a news release issued by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

ACOS are groups of doctors and hospitals that join together to develop and execute a plan for a patient's care.

ACOs were created to change the incentives for how medical care is paid for in the United States, moving away from a system that rewards the quantity of services to one that rewards the quality of health outcomes, the release stated.

ACOs are paid according to the success of the treatment administered and not by how many tests or procedures are performed.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 134,512 Medicare beneficiaries will be served by S.C. ACOs in 2016.

For more information on ACOs, visit www.innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/aco.

This story was originally published January 18, 2016 at 4:48 PM with the headline "South Carolina hospitals and health care providers join federal care plan initiative."