Care coordination is becoming increasingly important in U.S. healthcare for a variety of reasons, including the increased use of value-based care models, the behavioral care shortage and a boom in home healthcare. The pandemic underscored the need for providers to lean into value-based care – physicians are paid according to the quality of care they…
One way health systems have tried to improve patient outcomes has been the creation of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), partnerships among care providers that offer a unified combination of services. But what happens when these ACOs aren’t able to provide all the services necessary for a patient’s entire continuum of care? New research by Aravind…
Accountable care organization (ACO) success depends in part on a broad network of health information exchange (HIE) partners to effectively coordinate care. Our study illustrates that although ACO participation broadens HIE networks, the effects accrue differently across markets with varying levels of ACO penetration. ACO hospitals in high–ACO penetration markets increase their HIE network breadth…
Fundamentally, patient data access is about improving overall patient engagement and empowerment in care. Since meaningful use mandated patient portal adoption, the logic has dictated that a more informed patient would be a more educated and thus more engaged patient. Healthcare providers who have offered patient portal and clinical note access have seen a difference…
Care transitions that involve moving from one health care provider to another can often be stressful and daunting for patients; looking for high quality follow-up care while trying to manage costs can be complex. This process is equally cumbersome for nurses and care coordinators who want to ensure that they send their patients to the…
Health information exchanges (HIEs) advance interoperability and provide clinicians with greater access to patient health data for care coordination, according to an op-ed published in the Journal of AHIMA. Chris Hobson, MD, chief medical officer at Orion Health, and Allen Ausford, MD, FCFP, a clinical professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Alberta,…
Will accountable care organizations (ACOs) be the value-based payment model of the future?That depends. As the value-based care market has changed, ACO numbers have dropped and competitive payment models have attracted medical groups. ACOs need to prove that the shared savings model can increase historical savings and retain provider participation. And they may have limited…
The US health care system is increasingly moving towards value-based care to promote improved health outcomes for Americans. This can be seen across Medicare Advantage Plans (MA Plans), Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), and Certified Community Behavioral Health Centers (CCBHC), among others. This movement also demands a transformation of reimbursement models to value-based contracting, with a…
The healthcare industry in the U.S. has spent a whole generation talking about moving from a fee-for-service to a value-based model, focusing more on improved patient outcomes and early interventions rather than disease treatment. This shift has occurred gradually, sometimes purposefully, and sometimes in fits and starts, but overall, it has been slower than expected….
Central to the controversy about ACOs’ potential for Value-Based Care is whether they actually save enough money and reduce costs fast enough. Researchers and advocates have produced various independent studies of ACO savings, the most generous estimating $1.8 billion in cumulative savings over the first three years of the program, almost double CMS estimates. Many…