Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/610563
52 CARE DELIVERY 2 More Pioneer ACOs Drop Out: 4 Things to Know By Emily Rappleye M edicare's Pioneer account- able care organization pilot program now dwindles to just 16 participants from the original 32, following the drop out of two more Bos- ton-based ACOs: Steward Promise and Mount Auburn Cambridge Independent Practice Association, according to e Boston Globe. Here are four things to know about the ACOs' choice to drop the program, according to the report. 1. Steward and Mount Auburn both plan to join the new Next Generation ACO model, according to the report. e new model launches in 2016. 2. e Mount Auburn ACO, run by phy- sicians from Mount Auburn Cambridge IPA and Mount Auburn Hospital, saved roughly $14 million over its three-year tenure in the Pioneer Program, according to the report. However, the IPA's presi- dent, Barbara Spivak, MD, told e Globe the ACO expected to lose money as the program changed its financial bench- marks. 3. Steward Promise, part of Boston-based Steward Health Care, saved $30 million, according to the report, but also feels con- ditions under the Next Generation pilot will be more favorable. It is leaving the Pi- oneer Program so it can participate in the Next Generation model. 4. Lebanon, N.H.-based Dart- mouth-Hitchcock also recently pulled out of the Pioneer Program in favor of the Next Generation pilot. ree Massachusetts-based health systems plan to continue in the Pioneer Program as of now, according to e Boston Globe. ese systems include Boston-based Partners HealthCare, Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Care Organization and Newton, Mass.-based Atrius Health. n Opinion: Don't Call Physicians 'Providers' By Emily Rappleye A s more non-physician clinicians join the frontlines, the term "provider" has become an all-encompassing term for physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and others. However, this non-specific term lowers the power and clout of physicians, who have spent years studying and training to be top in their field, according to a blog on KevinMD.com written by Suneel, Dhand, MD. "In almost every country in the world, a medical doctor is consid- ered to be among the most noble and prestigious professions, the title only conferred after one of the most rigorous university courses in existence. It is a privilege and honor to be one. You worked hard to become a fine doctor and clini- cian," Dr. Dhand wrote. The titles nurse practitioner and physician assistant even sound more professional than provider, he wrote, though these clinicians are not the issue. Rather, the problem is no other professionals, such as attorneys, accountants or dentists, allow such non-specific nomenclature. This is reserved for cable TV providers and telephone providers, he wrote. Dr. Dhand challenges physi- cians to avoid becoming providers by immediately correcting ad- ministration if they use the word, replacing it with the word "clini- cian," asking the IT department to change the language across the IT system and add the word physician in place of provider on paperwork. "If you don't allow yourself to be called a provider, you won't be one. If however, you allow yourself to become a provider at every turn, then that is what you shall be," Dr. Dhand wrote. n BECKER'S 7 th Annual Meeting 2016 Hyatt Regency, Chicago April 27-30, 2016 John H. Noseworthy, CEO of Mayo Clinic, David Feinberg, CEO of Geisinger Health and 43 rd U.S. President, George W. Bush as a few keynote speakers Register at http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/conference/