Jade Gong, vice president, strategic initiatives for HDG, and Shawn Bloom, president and CEO of the National PACE Association, recently co-authored an article titled, PACE as an Accountable Care Strategy. Appearing in the healthcare leaders journal, ExecutiveInsight, the piece offers a great overview of the PACE program (or Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly) and how it has successfully delivered primary, acute, and long-term care to very frail dual eligible individuals in the community. Read the article in its entirety…

Kathleen M. Griffin, PhD

HDG Consultant Kathleen Griffin, PhD lent her expertise on accountable care organizations (ACOs) for a recent article in Senior Living Business.  The piece, which includes a case study, offers a great synopsis about ACOs: what they are, who can participate and how they work. Here’s an excerpt:

“We’ll begin to see a much more robust focus on good primary care throughout long-term care and assisted living facilities,” said Griffin, “because ACOs won’t want to see rehospitalizations or worsening of a condition that causes an ER visit.” As a result, more accountability will be expected from front-line staff—the nursing staff in the long-term care facility and the universal-care workers in an assisted living facility—and more attention will be paid to daily patient observations and reports.

You can read the feature, Health Care Reform: Understanding ACOs at levinassociates.com.