Mark McClellan of the Brookings Institution and coauthors seek to offer a global description of an accountable care system and a mechanism to assess related reforms. They suggest five components for a framework applicable internationally: population, outcomes, metrics and learning, payments and incentives, and coordinated delivery.
They also define an accountable care system as "one in which a group of providers are held jointly accountable for achieving a set of outcomes for a prospectively defined population over a period of time and for an agreed cost." The authors highlight the fundamental nature of the shift from a supply-driven system to a demand-driven one, and the importance of data and collaboration during this transition. They suggest that policy makers in all countries begin to take a more holistic view through a population health lens, reward outcomes, foster collaboration and support interoperability to help accountable care achieve its promise.
Article: Accountable Care Around The World: A Framework To Guide Reform Strategies, Mark McClellan, James Kent, Stephen J. Beales, Samuel I.A. Cohen, Michael Macdonnell, Andrea Thoumi, Mariam Abdulmalik and Ara Darzi, Health Affairs, doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2014.0373, published September 2014.