miércoles, 5 de junio de 2019

'Eyes In The Home': ACOs Use Home Visits To Improve Care Management, Identify Needs, And Reduce Hospital Use. - PubMed - NCBI

'Eyes In The Home': ACOs Use Home Visits To Improve Care Management, Identify Needs, And Reduce Hospital Use. - PubMed - NCBI

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Accountable Care Organizations More Likely To Use Home Visits To Help Manage Complex Patients’ Care

Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are more likely to use home visits to manage patients who have complex medical needs than non-ACO physician practices, a new AHRQ-funded study published in Health Affairs found. Home visits have been shown to improve care transitions following hospital discharge and enhance overall care management, and Medicare has created new reimbursement models to support home visits for some patients. In the study, ACOs reported three main home visit activities: assessing patients’ needs, reconciling medications use and identifying patient barriers to effective care. Among Medicare ACOs, researchers found no differences in quality scores or likelihood of achieving shared savings between ACOs that used home visits and those that did not. Researchers noted that, despite their perceived value, implementing home visits for some types of patients can be challenging because of barriers related to reimbursement, staffing and resources. Access the article.

2019 Jun;38(6):1021-1027. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2019.00003.

'Eyes In The Home': ACOs Use Home Visits To Improve Care Management, Identify Needs, And Reduce Hospital Use.

Fraze TK1, Beidler LB2, Briggs ADM3, Colla CH4.

Author information

Abstract

Home visits are used for a variety of services and patient populations. We used national survey data from physician practices and accountable care organizations (ACOs), paired with qualitative interviews, to learn about home visiting programs. ACO practices were more likely to report using care transitions home visits than non-ACO practices were. Eighty percent of ACOs reported using home visits for some of their patients, with larger ACOs more commonly using home visits. Interviewed ACOs reported using home visits as part of caremanagement and care transitions programs as well as to evaluate patients' home environments and identify needs. ACOs most often used nonphysician staff to conduct home visits. Home visit implementation for some types of patients can be challenging because of barriers related to reimbursement, staffing, and resources.