Eight New Hampshire health care organizations, including the hospitals of GraniteOne Health and several members of North Country Community Care Organization (NCCCO), have formed New Hampshire Value Care ACO to increase quality and value for New Hampshire Medicare patients.
NH Value Care, LLC was recently approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as an Accountable Care Organization (ACO). An ACO encourages members to look at care on a more coordinated basis, identifying best practices and reducing redundancies that help to increase quality and reduce cost. The goal is to provide patients integrated, coordinated, and consistent care.
“When we can communicate better between our organizations and understand what our patients need, not just in one community but across the organization, we will see better outcomes. Patients should be able to get the same level of care no matter where they access services,” said NH Value Care and Upper Connecticut Valley Hospital CEO Scott Colby.
ACOs fall under the Medicare Shared Savings Program, which was created by the Affordable Care Act. Members share both financial and medical responsibility of providing care to its total patient population. The ACO is accountable to several CMS measures of quality and utilization. When an ACO successfully meets these measures—providing care that is high-quality and cost effective—they are eligible for payments (a.k.a. shared savings) from CMS. ACOs tend to place a strong emphasis on primary care, population health, and prevention.
“As we move from the fee-for-service to a fee-for-value model, we’re changing the way we do business,” said Rich Scheinblum, CFO for NH Value Care and Monadnock Community Hospital. “Together, we serve about 20,000 Medicare beneficiaries in New Hampshire. That’s 20,000 opportunities to ask ourselves, ‘are we giving this patient the most effective care in the most efficient way? Are they getting the best value?’”
The members of NH Value Care include: GraniteOne Health members Catholic Medical Center in Manchester, Huggins Hospital in Wolfeboro and Monadnock Community Hospital in Peterborough; NCCCO members Ammonoosuc Community Health Services based in Littleton, Androscoggin Valley Hospital in Berlin, Littleton Regional Healthcare also in Littleton, Upper Connecticut Valley Hospital in Colebrook and Weeks Medical Center in Lancaster. Indian Stream Health Center in Colebrook is expected to join on January 1, 2020.
For more information visit: NH Value Care, LLC