Francis Crosson, a top executive in the Kaiser Permanente system and the vice chair of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, is an important advocate for the accountable care organization model of health care delivery.

Writing in the Oct. 1 New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Crosson reiterates his call for a “stepwise” approach to increase the prevalence of integrated delivery systems:

…two interacting sets of changes need to occur: movement away from fee-for-service payment of physicians toward prospective payment, and multispecialty integration of physicians combined with hospitals to form new “accountable” systems of care.