The Daily Briefing editorial team rounds up recent accountable care news.
- How providers can screen for housing instability. A recent American Hospital Association (AHA) task force report focused on how health care providers can screen for housing instability and other social determinants of health to steer patients towards appropriate resources. The task force stressed that poor-quality housing can have negative health effects, including by worsening asthma and allergic reactions. Priya Bathija, AHA's senior associate director of policy, said, "Hospitals are working to take whatever steps they need to take to improve the health of the population."
- Cleveland Clinic and IBM join forces on value-based care. Under the partnership, the Cleveland Clinic will expand its use of IBM cognitive computing technologies across its clinical and administrative operations. IBM and the Clinic plan to use data from the partnership to create new models and standards that other providers can use to implement value-based care. Cleveland Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove said, "This initiative with IBM is mutually beneficial and will significantly advance our IT capabilities, which are increasingly important to provide the best care to patients as health care becomes more and more technology-dependent."
- Which hospitals improved readmissions the most? Those that were penalized the most, study finds. Hospitals reduced readmission rates following the implementation of the federal Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP), which ties readmissions to financial penalties, according to a study published last week in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The study compared hospital readmission rates both before and after the Affordable Care Act, which implemented HRRP, was enacted. The researchers said their findings "suggest that implementation of the HRRP achieved its goal of accelerating reductions in hospital readmissions, particularly for the lowest-performing institutions."
From Advisory Board:
- Understand CMS' final rule expanding mandatory bundled payments.Join Advisory Board experts for a webconference on Friday, January 13, to learn about CMS' much-anticipated final rule expanding mandatory bundled payments to new services and new markets—and what providers need to do to prepare for the program's launch in July 2017.
- What value-based care means for your pharmacy strategy. The pharmacy is playing an increasingly important role in value-based care. Join us for a webconference on Wednesday, January 18, to review how the transition from fee-for-service to risk-based payments will impact health system strategy broadly and pharmacy strategy specifically—including how to make the case for increased investment in pharmacy services.
- 2016's biggest surprises to accountable payments—and the path ahead. Last year was a tumultuous one for health care—and 2017 seems poised to be even more eventful. What were the biggest changes that affected accountable payments in 2016, and what can we expect next for value-based care?