New Medicare and Medicaid Study Results Reported from D.E. Lage et al (Creating a Network of High-Quality Skilled Nursing Facilities: Preliminary…

New Medicare and Medicaid Study Results Reported from D.E. Lage et al (Creating a Network of High-Quality Skilled Nursing Facilities: Preliminary Data on the Postacute Care Quality Improvement Experiences of an Accountable Care Organization)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Weekly News -- Data detailed on Medicare and Medicaid have been presented. According to news reporting out of Boston, Massachusetts, by VerticalNews editors, research stated, "Postacute care (PAC) is an important source of cost growth and variation in the Medicare program and is critical to accountable care organization (ACO) and bundled payment efforts to improve quality and value in the Medicare program, but ACOs must often look outside their walls to identify high-value external PAC partners, including skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). As a solution to this problem, the integrated health system, Partners HealthCare System (PHS) and its Pioneer ACO launched the PHS SNF Collaborative Network in October 2013 to identify and partner with high-quality SNFs."

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research, "This study details the method by which PHS selected SNFs using minimum criteria based on public scores and secondary criteria based on self-reported measures, describes the characteristics of selected and nonselected SNFs, and reports SNF satisfaction with the collaborative. The selected SNFs (n=47) had significantly higher CMS Five-Star scores than the nonselected SNFs (n=93) (4.6 vs 3.2, P<.001) and were more likely than nonselected SNFs that met the minimum criteria (n=35) to have more than 5days of clinical coverage (17.0% vs 2.9%, P=.02) and to have a physician see admitted individuals within 24 (38.3% vs 17.1%, P=.02) and 48hours (93.6% vs 80.0%, P=.03). A survey sent to collaborative SNFs found high satisfaction with the process (average satisfaction, 4.6/5, with 1=very dissatisfied and 5=very satisfied, n=19)."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "Although the challenges of improving care in SNFs remain daunting, this approach can serve as a first step toward greater clinical collaboration between acute and postacute settings that will lead to better outcomes for frail older adults."

For more information on this research see: Creating a Network of High-Quality Skilled Nursing Facilities: Preliminary Data on the Postacute Care Quality Improvement Experiences of an Accountable Care Organization. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2015;63(4):804-808. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society can be contacted at: Wiley-Blackwell, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA. (Wiley-Blackwell - www.wiley.com/; Journal of the American Geriatrics Society - onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1532-5415)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting D.E. Lage, Partners Continuing Care, Boston, MA, United States. Additional authors for this research include D. Rusinak, D. Carr, D.C. Grabowski and D.C. Ackerly.

Keywords for this news article include: Boston, Massachusetts, United States, Health Policy, Medicare and Medicaid, North and Central America,

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