Population Health Management and ACOs: Will ACOs Meet Their Goals of Lower Costs?

Population Health Management Platform combines IT tools and related features that enable healthcare provider organizations to comprehend treatment approaches for patient populations and accomplish specific quality, expense, and satisfaction goals.

As per Population Health Management, the goal of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) is to continue improving clinical services, individual health, foster population wellness, and lower costs. Medicare has specifically prioritized ACOs as the primary tool for enhancing quality care and lowering costs. ACOs actively promote Pop Health by emphasizing prevention and robust management of patients with chronic conditions.

ACO members are encouraged to deliver quality care to enhance and maintain their patients' health through rewards such as linking clinician payment to quality care measures or penalizing hospitals for unscheduled rehospitalization. The ACOs’ objective is to substantially lower healthcare costs by providing medical intervention that keeps patients healthy.

ACOs and Health Departments Collaborate for Pop Health

ACOs and health departments are working together to improve Pop Health. The following are some instances of the role these departments play in assisting ACOs in fulfilling their health outcomes and cost-cutting objectives:

1. Providing data on care services access, health risk factors, and prevalence by population.

2. Informing elderly people about evidence-based preventative measures such as fall prevention and healthy behaviors.

3.  Using culturally adapted approaches to address healthcare disparities.

4. Organizing activities and advocating legislative changes to encourage healthier choices.

5.  Collaborating with other safety-net organizations.

6.  Assisting with evaluations and Pop Health monitoring.

7. Providing care managers and expertise by connecting with state and national healthcare networks.

Strategies of ACOs to Meet Goals of Lower Costs

ACOs have been able to provide better care at reduced costs by incorporating health IT equipment, adopting population health management plans, enhancing post-acute care delivery, and applying other care and cost-effective strategies.

Strategy 1: Identify Seriously Sick Patients

ACOs should begin to prioritize the critically ailing patients for population health management, integrate a more holistic home visit plan, and employ healthcare IT solutions to coordinate treatment and avoid unnecessary hospitalization. It will drastically lower costs and enhance care quality.

Strategy 2: Setting a Holistic Home Visit

Home visit intervention solutions in ACOs are fragmented and potentially underutilized. Creating a formal implementation care delivery system for patients at home can also save money by minimizing rehospitalizations and assisting patients with precise medical needs to monitor their diseases in lower-acuity situations.

Strategy 3: Incorporating Health IT

CMS has highlighted care coordination as a critical component of care quality and lower costs. ACOs should assess their care and cost-management methods, and health IT systems to modify the patient outcomes.