Bring Homecare, Technology into the ACO Equation  

Category: Practice Management

By Keith Crownover

Accountable Care Organizations, or ACOs, are in the news at every turn.  As the newest healthcare delivery model, ACOs combine multiple providers, delivering multiple disciplines of care, into single entities.  These new entities are organized around a goal of earning financial incentives by providing higher quality care to patients, coordinating care between providers and care settings, reducing hospital readmissions, and ultimately lowering the costs of healthcare while shifting from the current fee-for-service model.

For Medicare patients, treatment seldom stops when the patient is discharged from the hospital, often followed by a stay in either a rehab hospital or a skilled nursing facility. Readmissions back into the hospital which occur within 30 days of original discharge occurs in nearly 20% of these cases, often due to unclear discharge...