Association Between Specialist Office Visits and Health Expenditures in Accountable Care Organizations

Accountable care organizations (ACOs) aim to control health expenditures while improving quality of care. Primary care has been emphasized as a means to reduce spending, but little is known about the implications of using specialists for achieving this ACO objective.To examine the association between ACO-beneficiary office visits conducted by specialists and the cost and utilization outcomes of those visits.This cross-sectional study obtained...