American Health Line's Josh Zeitlin spoke with Asaf Bitton, an internist and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, about misconceptions about the primary care industry, the transition to value-based payment models, and more.

Steven Shortell, a professor of health policy and management at the University of California-Berkeley, says, "More and more (ACOs) are assuming more risk" and predicts "that the pace of that change is going to accelerate."

Health systems are playing a leading role in addressing patients' social needs, in part because their profits are not based on the number of patient visits and treatments.

Michael McWilliams, a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School, says, "Many people have written off [accountable care organizations] as not working. But over time, the savings have materialized."

The pilot program will involve 30,000 of Vermont's Medicaid beneficiaries and close to 2,000 different health care providers.

Health policy analysts say repealing the Affordable Care Act without a replacement likely would result in coverage losses, meaning fewer patients would be able to pay their medical bills.

This is not the first time providers, insurers, and advocacy groups have called on the Trump administration to continue efforts to promote value-based payment models.

CMS says the participating clinicians in 2017 will serve more than 12.3 million Medicare and/or Medicaid beneficiaries across all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

The researchers recommend that quality programs take into account patients' socioeconomic characteristics, such as race and income, when adjusting for risk in provider quality programs.