MANCHESTER, N.H. – Catholic Medical Center and seven other healthcare facilities across New Hampshire have joined to create NH Value Care LLC, an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) following recent approval by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
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.
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?’”
In addition to Catholic Medical Center, the new ACO includes Huggins Hospital in Wolfeboro and Monadnock Community Hospital in Peterborough, 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.