The impact of value-based purchasing (VBP) and shared risk programs has traditionally focused on hospitals and health systems. But skilled nursing facilities and other post-acute providers play critical roles in patient care. Furthermore, starting in 2018, value-based purchasing will extend to post-acute providers, as nursing home payments become tied to hospital readmissions starting in 2019.
Yet despite the integral role that skilled nursing plays, in a recent survey of over 100 SNFs, we found that they often do not have access to basic information on VBP patients and key performance indicators by which health systems and ACOs are measuring them on. Without access to relevant patient information and clear quality expectations, successful partnerships are impossible. Without successful partnerships, value-based care is unlikely to succeed.
The key takeaways of the survey are below. Download the whitepaper here.
Hospital readmissions matter to post-acute providers: Post-acute providers are and will be measured on their ability to reduce or prevent readmissions. Three-quarters of post-acute providers want to know – but do not know – when their discharged patients return to the hospital within 30 days.
Post-acute providers want to understand quality benchmarks: 78% of post-acute care providers would like to know the expected length of stay by diagnosis for value-based and high-risk patients, but do not receive this information from hospital partners today. Post-acute providers also report they are missing information on how they perform with respect to other post-acute providers. 69% would like to know how they stack up against the competition, but have no access to that data.
Key patient data isn’t shared consistently: Organizations would like information to identify which patients are in bundled payment or other alternative payment programs, but only 33% of organizations receive this consistently with another 10% reporting they receive patient attribution some of the time. Another critical information gap is knowing who is part of the care coordination team. Only 32% of post-acute care providers receive all or some information about the patient’s care team contacts.
With regulatory and financial pressures mounting, it’s time to move to the next stage of post-acute and acute provider partnerships. Evolving from loosely defined partnerships to putting care coordination into practice is going to be the key to success now and moving forward.
Get the whole story. Download the complete results of our survey of more than 100 skilled nursing facilities.
