March 18, 2014

The Future of Post-Acute Care Under Value-Based Payment

Medicare spending on post-acute care is growing substantially faster than the overall program and now exceeds $62 billion annually. The Institute of Medicine recently identified post-acute care as the top driver of geographic variation in Medicare spending. Major concerns about post-acute care include highly variable quality, over-use of unnecessary services and poor coordination between acute and post-acute providers. But, the establishment of new payment models including Medicare’s new bundled payment and shared savings programs create much stronger incentives for coordination and integration of acute and post-acute care. Health systems, ACOs and Medicare Advantage plans are beginning to establish preferred networks of post-acute care providers to deliver care more effectively. Such organizations are also finding ways to use skilled nursing and home care services to reduce potentially avoidable hospitalizations. These trends are beginning to shake up the world of post-acute care. This Forum examined new approaches to manage, coordinate and utilize post-acute services by insurers, ACOs and post-acute providers – and the implication of these approaches for patients, providers and policy.

Please see Robert Mechanic's article in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Agenda

Participants