Critics Call Medicaid Reform ‘HMOs on Steroids’

RALEIGH — Accountable care organizations that are the cornerstone of the state’s Medicaid reform plan are “HMOs on steroids,” one national expert says, and they face certain opposition in the state Senate. Each ACO would have primary care physicians, multiple providers from various disciplines, its own budget, a patient base assigned by the state, share some risk in budget overruns, and split savings with the state.