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As the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) strives to improve and expand accountable care organization (ACO) models for the future, there’s a prime opportunity to better serve long-term care populations, including residents in nursing homes.
For starters, the federal agency should consider simplifying the bureaucratic hurdles that keep more skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) from joining the program – currently more than 90% are left out of the ACO programs according to figures shared by Nisha Hammel, VP of reimbursement policy and population health for the American Health Care Association and National Centers for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL).
Existing ACOs are more aligned with community-based populations, Hammel told Skilled Nursing News. And, SNFs that try to participate in ACOs are often met with unnecessary complexity and administrative burdens, she said, because of this misalignment.