Accountable Care Organization in Collierville, Tennessee

The goal of Tennessee’s Accountable Care Organization (ACO)

The goal of Tennessee’s Accountable Care Organization (ACO) is to efficiently deliver both a large number of high-quality healthcare services. When Tennessee ACO succeeds in enhancing people’s health, as seen by a rise in hospital visits, it is rewarded. ACO assists Medicare-Free-for-Service patients by providing them with high-quality services, ensuring that Tennessee patients and healthcare providers receive all of the benefits they are due. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), ACO health providers deliver high-quality care by helping people navigate the healthcare system and maintain their health (2017).

The ACO investment model in Tennessee

Of the 38 states, Tennessee is one that has implemented the ACO investment model, which offers prepaid services in rural and underserved areas. To market themselves and serve more patients, ACO providers are optimizing provision of Medicare by involving pharmacists to provide direct patient care (Middle Tennessee Section 1118, (2017). This has ensured appropriate use of generic medicine and educating residents and those entire Tennessee about diagnostic and therapeutic alternatives (CMS, 2014). In implementing patient education, ACO is abiding by a recommendation by Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) services, which requires its inclusion to ensure quality.

Incorporating information technology in Tennessee ACO

Tennessee ACO is incorporating information technology (IT) to achieve quality and reach more people. Health information technologies are being used alert health providers to unforeseen health issues, and adverse events among Tennessee population and hence provide preventative care. IT is also being used to transmit medical prescriptions both controlled and uncontrolled substances. Affordable Care Act has pushed for adoption of vertical integration not only for Tennessee but in all the states that have ACO (Ahlquist, Saxena andSpencer, 2014). ACO health providers who link themselves with health insurance companies or universities can work better and provide quality health services to people Collierville and US at large. Horizontal integration, on the other hand, is blamed for incurring huge debt for the payors and encourages market dominance for huge ACO providers hence lowering service delivery. Vertical integration in Tennessee has been credited for delivering tangible improvements health services provision, improving patient experience and ensuring affordability of Medicare (CMS, 2014). CMS demand accountability and value-based service from ACO provider which has been observed by those in Collierville, Tennessee (Ahlquist, Saxena andSpencer, 2014). The ACO model has helped transition away from fee-for-service to a shared servicing program that focuses on health first. This, therefore, makes the Tennessee ACO providers abide by CMS’s reimbursement approaches.

References

Ahlquist, G., D, Saxena, S., B. & Spencer, B., L. (2014) Accountable Care Organizations The New Player in the Health-Reform Landscape. Booz&co. Retrieved from https://www.strategyand.pwc.com/media/file/Accountable-care-organizations.pdf

Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) (2014), ACO Evolution and ACO initiatives. Center for Medicare and Medicaid. Retrieved from https://downloads.cms.gov/files/ACO- Evolution-of-ACO-Initiatives-MasterPublicCommentsnonWufoo-8_20_14.pdf

Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) (2017), Accountable Care Organizations. CMS.gov. https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-Fee-for-Service-Payment/ACO/

Middle Tennessee Section 1118, (2017), Accountable Care Organizations. ASQ. http://www.asq- middletn.org/news.php?viewStory=27