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Announcement - Accountable Care for Population Health

Health Affairs is launching a new Forefront series, Accountable Care for Population Health, featuring policy analysis, proposals, and commentary that will inform policies on the state and federal levels to understand and advance models for accountable care.

The series will include articles exploring the evidence base (and gaps in our knowledge) and the range of views on various key issues—all with the aim of enhancing the national conversation on accountable care and eliciting thoughtful responses from leaders in the public and private sectors.

The series will run through December 2023.

We are interested in articles that explore what it will take to create fully integrated, patient-centered, cost-efficient care under the umbrella of accountable care and how we can address obstacles to doing so. We are also interested in articles that look toward major policy changes or developments in 2023 and beyond. We have particular interest in articles that explore these issues with an equity lens. We welcome jointly authored submissions that integrate practice-based and academic perspectives.

We are grateful to Arnold Ventures for supporting this project.

Health Affairs has covered these and related issues throughout its history. You will find related articles by using the search term “accountable care” or “ACO” on our website search filter.

Below is a list of topics of particular interest; we encourage authors to submit articles on other relevant issues as well.

Current Status of Accountable Care

  • Successes/challenges of existing programs
  • Internal organization and program design
  • Understanding differences between accountable care and Medicare Advantage
  • Regulatory environment, including CMS’s Final Rule on accountable care

Data and Data Gaps

  • Setting and tracking benchmarks
  • Managing data and goals within the long-term vision of ACOs and the short-term nature of many contracts
  • Episode management and tracking data

Financing

  • Alignment of multi-payer models
  • How risk models affect quality and cost of care
  • Long-term vision of payment reform and bundled payments

Equity

  • Progress in promoting equity under accountable care
  • Meeting diverse needs across and within states and sub-populations
  • The role of safety net facilities and the social determinants of health
  • Building equity into integrated care models at a population level

Other Perspectives

  • Participant recruitment and patient-centered perspectives
  • Provider recruitment and retention, workforce issues
  • Payer perspectives on risk models
  • Role of specialists
  • Role of disease-specific ACOs
  • Medicaid ACOs

 

Other Considerations

Health Affairs reaches a wide audience that includes policymakers; academics and researchers from many disciplines; health and public health professionals and officials; health industry executives; lawyers; consultants; students; and members of the media. Authors should be mindful of this breadth and aim to write for readers who have an interest in health policy issues but should not assume expertise among readers on any particular topic.

Submissions should have a strong basis in evidence and reflect a thorough understanding of the state of knowledge of the subjects explored as well as the policy issues and questions that surround those subjects.

Submission Requirements

Manuscripts should be submitted via Health Affairs Forefront article submission system, Submittable. Authors should indicate that they are submitting for the “Accountable Care” series when prompted.

Articles should be original submissions not previously published or being considered by other publications. We encourage authors to aim for no more than 2,000 words. Additional details and style guidelines are available on Health Affairs’ website under “Submit to Health Affairs Forefront.”

Timing

There is no deadline for submissions. Submissions will be reviewed on a rolling basis and considered for publication through December 2023. However, it is expected that articles will deal with topics of interest in a timely way, so that the material presented is relevant to current policy concerns. Submissions on series topics will continue to be welcome and reviewed as regular Health Affairs Forefront submissions after the series concludes.

Selection Process

Submissions will be competitively reviewed, and therefore we cannot guarantee publication of any particular submission. Health Affairs’ editorial staff will evaluate all submissions to make an initial determination on suitability for Forefront. Those submissions that advance through this phase will be edited, in collaboration with authors, and must be approved by the editors before publication.

Questions

If you have questions about the suitability of a particular topic or Forefront article, please e-mail us at [email protected].