Guest Blog: Accountable Care
The following is a guest blog from Anthony Cirillo:
As healthcare reform is interpreted and rolled out one of the the things that the industry is grappling with is this notion of accountable care organizations. It has been better defined in the hospital sector and would include multiple providers and physicians being responsible for the health of a population and being paid as one, a bundled payment. My first reaction to that was how would you actually coordinate this and cooperate to get it done. I further surmised that one way to do that would be through more mergers and acquisitions so that fewer providers would own more of the services and in essence create their own accountable care organization. That decreases competition and eases the whole discussion of how to divide payments.
I further have blogged that long term care needs to think about their own interpretation of the accountable care organization. It could include home health, adult medical day, DME, continuing care, assisted living and nursing homes, and hospice. The whole continuum of aging could therefore be one accountable care organization that is paid for the care of a given population outside of the hospital/physician relationship. So then what happens? Gentiva Health Services pays $1 billion to buy Odyssey Healthcare essentially now owning the home health and hospice piece of the continuum.
By controlling more of the continuum of care, organizations will be prepared for the implications of healthcare reform and they will be assuring the filling of their pipeline as people progress from one level of care to another. That in part why Gentiva made this move. At the same time, the consistency of the brand experience over time will help develop loyalists and ambassadors for organizations that will continue to fill the pipeline for years to come.
So while I firmly believe in competition, smart organizations are going to start owning more of the continuum.
Anthony Cirillo, FACHE, ABC is a health care consultant, senior advocate and blogger for Wellsphere, Medpedia and others in the area of aging, person and patient-centered care and marketing. He consults with long-term care facilities and is available for management retreats and association keynotes. He is the author of "Who Moved My Dentures? His company, Fast Forward Consulting empowers organizations to change the healthcare experience and leverage it in their marketing. Hear him speak at AHCA in October. More at www.4wardfast.com and www.anthonyssong.com.