Dartmouth has traditionally had a reputation as the most conservative of the Ivy League campuses, but the Obama administration put its faith in the New Hampshire university to be a valuable example of the successes of the accountable care organizations.

Dartmouth researchers put together an accountable care organization model aimed at saving Medicare money by shifting reimbursement away from the prevailing fee-for-service model.

There are different payment systems being explored by accountable care organizations and encouraged by the Obama administration. One example is bundled payments that compensate a hospital for the entire treatment, including recovery and follow-up care. Payments are also increasingly tied to medical outcomes, such as hospital readmission rates.