Certain Organizational Characteristics Affect ACO Preventive Care Quality Performance

Key findings. (1) ACOs at provider workforce extremes--few primary care providers or many specialists--performed worse on measures of preventive care quality relative to those with more PCPs and fewer specialists. (2) Upfront investment in ACO formation is associated with higher performance in preventive care quality. (3) ACOs with a higher proportion of minority beneficiaries performed worse on disease prevention measures than did ACOs with a lower proportion of minority beneficiaries. (4) ACOs facing barriers to quality performance may benefit from organizational characteristics such as electronic health record capabilities and hospital inclusion in the ACO.