SNF – Duane Morris Health Law

Providers in the long term care industry often ask me whether they should sign on with their local accountable care organization (“ACO”). My answer has always been, for years now, absolutely! After all, ACOs can be a good source of referrals for skilled nursing. Plus, a team-oriented ACO can foster better patient care, quality care and wellness in the ACO setting in the community. However, more of our skilled nursing facility clients have been experiencing problems with certain ACOs operating as dictatorships. Perhaps this is because more and more skilled nursing facilities are finally entering the realm of ACO involvement.

While it is good for a skilled nursing facility to be on the ACO’s “A List” of skilled nursing home providers, skilled nursing facilities need to carefully review their contracts with ACOs to make sure they are not taken advantage of or subject to increased liability. For example, recently one skilled nursing facility relationship with its ACO was so strained that it fired its ACO due to problems with patient care. See Alex Spanko, “How One Skilled Nursing Operator Navigates The Occasional Single ‘Dictatorship’ of ACOs,” Skilled Nursing News, October 16, 2019. In some cases, there were reports that ACOs are placing too much pressure on skilled nursing facilities to discharge residents earlier than indicated, or forcing facilities to provide less care in order to reduce ACO costs, often times to the detriment of residents. Continue reading “Skilled Nursing Facilities, Beware of ACOs”

Recently, the American Hospital Association published in its newletter Trendwatch a detailed 16 page article entitled “The Role of Post-Acute Care in New Care Delivery Models,” December 2015. The article discusses what we have been trying to tell our post-acute care, especially nursing home clients, for years: become a valued partner of an Accountable Care Organization (“ACO”) and be ready to show your value to those ACOs, or continue to operate as you historically have at your own peril.

When ACOs first started, there was virtually no room or focus on long-term care providers being involved in an ACO. Some hospitals talked initially about home health care, but very little discussion was geared towards long-term care providers being in an ACO network because hospitals did not understand the long-term care environment. Continue reading “ACOs Waking Up to the Value of Post-Acute Care Providers”