You Need an ACO Strategy

According to Patient Placement Systems, a developer of online healthcare software, SNF professionals are doubtful that proposed Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) will benefit post-acute facilities or their patients.

The survey also indicates that skilled nursing facilities do not clearly understand how they would participate in ACOs and are therefore slow to establish ACO strategies.

I would contend that it is not up to the skilled nursing facility to have an ACO strategy. Rather, it will most likely be hospitals with the strategy and it will be more about positioning the nursing home / rehabilitation provider as the partner of choice for the hospital. After all there are 6,000 hospitals and 15,000 or so nursing homes. So not everyone will be on the radar of the local hospital to be the provider of choice and the recipient of part of the bundled payment.

Patient Placement Systems administered the survey in July 2011 and received feedback from 154 respondents, of which 36 percent were C-level or other corporate executives, while 17 percent were facility administrators and another 17 percent were corporate directors and managers. Highlights of the survey included:

• Twenty-two percent of SNF professionals agreed or agreed strongly ACOs will be perceived as having improved patient care in five years.
• Twenty-five percent said that ACOs would benefit skilled nursing facilities.
• Thirty-one percent agreed or strongly agreed "our organization has a clear understanding about how skilled nursing facilities will participate in ACOs."

Whie 53 percent agreed or strongly agreed that developing an ACO strategy is a "high priority for our organization," preparation still lags: 22 percent of skilled nursing facility providers have an ACO strategy prepared; and 34 percent said they "don't know" when their organization will develop an ACO strategy.

The good news is that 69 percent agreed or strongly agreed "even without formal ACOs in place, our skilled nursing facilities collaborate with hospitals to improve the continuity and quality of patient care."

So providers are not waiting for a final ACO rule to start addressing the challenges of lowering costs and enhancing patient care. And that is good. But having an ACO strategy can be a competitive advantage.

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