The power of an accountable care organization (ACO) isn’t simply in the care provided or the savings realized — it’s also in stakeholders who recognize they’re part of a greater good.
Michael Camacho, President of Accountable Care for Sound Physicians, was recently reminded of that by one of his board members who also happens to be a partner in his ACO.
“He told me, ‘You guys really have our back here,’” says Camacho, who leads Sound Long-Term Care Management (SLTCM), Sound Physicians’ ACO. “He was grateful for how we help parse and apply data to reduce the risk of unnecessary readmissions for high-acuity patients.”
Rather than trying to “boil the ocean through pushing large amounts of data to providers,” Camacho says, SLTCM is focused on maximizing the opportunities around “key initiatives that will make a significant impact for the patients.”
The impact has, indeed, been significant. SLTCM was able to decrease emergency department-to-hospital admissions for patients by 9.4 percent. And in its inaugural year in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP), SLTCM achieved $22.9M in total shared savings, placing it in the top 10 percent of ACOs nationwide.
These accomplishments underscore SLTCM’s dedication to enhancing access to high-quality care and improving health outcomes for one of the nation’s most at-risk populations: patients in long-term care and assisted living facilities.
With the strong clinical leadership of Dr. Tom Kim, Chief Medical Officer, and Dr. Sandeep Yadavalli, Associate Chief Medical Officer, SLTCM is proud to bring its ACO partners a wealth of expertise and guidance.
“We take a lot of complex data and information and simplify it for our provider groups to make it actionable, and then we close that feedback loop on a weekly basis with every group,” Camacho says. “It’s not like we push you data and you never hear from us. We come back in two weeks and ask, ‘How did that go? What were you able to see?’ We’re thought partners together in creating better outcomes for patients.”
That thought partnership and connection helps build meaningful relationships between SLTCM and its participating providers and facilities — and between providers and patients, especially when the care they’re receiving contributes to improved quality of life.
An investment that pays off
Focused exclusively on Medicare beneficiaries living in long-term care and assisted facilities, SLTCM’s dedicated physician leadership and deep roots in value-based care helps bring better quality of care to patients and better financial performance through ongoing investment in its people, partners, and technology — including telemedicine as a key means of connecting patients with care.
In its inaugural performance year, SLTCM was able to:
- Decrease patient emergency department visits by 8 percent
- Decrease emergency department-to-hospital admissions by 9.4 percent
- Decrease short-term hospitalizations by 10.9 percent
They did all of this with a patient mortality rate of 35 percent — far above the normal 5 percent.
“Due to the complexity and acuity of long-term care patients, our population also had the highest cost per beneficiary compared to other patients in Medicare ACOs,” Camacho says.
Even so, SLTCM achieved the top 6 percent of shared savings for first-year ACOs and top 10 percent in total shared savings, placing fifth nationally for per beneficiary per year (PBPY) savings.
“Our ACO model prioritizes the needs of Medicare’s most vulnerable and highest-acuity populations,” Camacho says. “By combining clinical expertise, facility partnerships, advanced data analytics, and innovative technology, we’re driving substantial improvements in care quality for these patients.”
How SLTCM helps its partners
SLTCM patients are battling septicemia, dementia and other catastrophic diseases at a rate 11 to 15 times greater than the average Medicare beneficiary, according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Despite these challenges, SLTCM’s collaborative approach with providers and facilities demonstrates the potential to significantly impact patient care.
With physicians leading SLTCM, every administrative need and care protocol is built on data, research, and expertise to maximize results.
“Our support of provider and facility partners has transformed patient care in the long-term care setting,” Dr. Kim says. “We’re deeply committed to advancing the quality of care for these patients, and these results show that our collaborative approach is making a tangible difference in patients’ lives.”
As part of Sound Physicians — a nationwide, physician-led multispecialty medical group — SLTCM leverages decades of expertise providing high-quality, cost-effective care to support physicians’ and facilities’ successful participation in value-based care programs.
“We’re excited for the future,” Camacho says. “We demonstrated that we’ve done something really special here for patients and we’re excited to apply what we’ve learned from our first year to make an even more positive impact in the coming years.”
This article is sponsored by Sound Physicians. To learn more about SLTCM, visit soundphysicians.com/sltcm-aco and enroll.
