New JAMA paper “The Looming Threat of Liability for Accountable Care Organizations and What to Do About It”

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has just posted online (ahead of print) a new article by Ben Harvey and I entitled “The Looming Threat of Liability for Accountable Care Organizations and What to Do About It.” We discuss the Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) that that the Affordable Care Act seeks to incentivize, the malpractice and other liability claims they may, and how the lack of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) shield of the kind enjoyed by Managed Care Organizations will impact the liability environment ACOs will face. We also discuss self-help remedies available to ACOs as well as potential congressional intervention to deal with these issues.