Consider the following scenario: you are a health care administrator for a large community hospital in an urban market. your hospital has already made substantial investments in health information technology and physician participation. in response to health care reform, several competing hospitals are starting to form acos to participate in new payment models designed to reduce costs and improve population health the board of directors for your hospital has requested that you lead the development of an evaluation plan to assess the potential impact of aco formation. in particular, the board wants to understand how the aco will align with the organization's strategy and what information will be required to assess the impact of the aco on your organization's performance