Indeed, the point of reform is to lower costs and improve quality. Turning a bloated sector into an efficient one that delivers a better product. Sounds like it's working.
The Cleveland Clinic has always been a good example of the rhetoric vs. reality on the ACA's payment and delivery reforms (the "it doesn't control costs!" rhetoric vs. the reality that, oh wait, it does).
For instance, the Cleveland Clinic's CEO, Toby Cosgrove, offered
some of the rhetoric in the pages of the WSJ in the summer of 2012:
But by the time he gave an interview to the WSJ last December,
he let the reality slip in a bit:
An "impetus" for major groups of hospitals and doctors to cut costs sure, "controlling costs" absolutely not!