Community Healthcare Partners’ ACO realizes positive financial results first year, improving quality of care

Community Healthcare Partners’ ACO realizes positive financial results first year, improving quality of care

Community Healthcare Partners ACO, Inc., (CHP ACO) saved Medicare $2.6 million in its first year of participation in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) through more efficient care coordination and a reduction in duplicate services. The CHP ACO is responsible for cost containment and improving the quality of care to more than 22,000 Medicare beneficiaries across Northwest Indiana.

CHP ACO is the clinically integrated provider network that unites more than 900 independent and employed providers with Community Healthcare System’s hospitals: Community Hospital, Munster, St. Catherine Hospital, East Chicago and St. Mary Medical Center, Hobart. As a MSSP ACO, CHP ACO doctors and other Community Healthcare System providers work together with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to better coordinate care that suits the individual needs of patients.

In 2018, 548 MSSP ACOs cared for 10.1 million beneficiaries. Sixty-six percent of those ACOs saved Medicare money, according to CMS data for that year.

“The main objective of the ACO is to improve patient experience and overall health outcomes by providing high quality services and care at the right time in the right setting,” said Alan Kumar, MD, Chief Medical Officer, CHP ACO. “With this model of care, we have been able to move forward implementing new programs and best practices that have had an immediate and positive impact for our patients.”

The MSSP ACO emphasizes a patient-centered, preventative care approach with the goal of reducing hospital stays as well as emergency department visits. CHP ACO’s savings rate for 2018 totaled 0.9 percent.

“We are proud of the efforts of all CHP ACO providers and staff in accomplishing this first year goal,” Kumar said. “Our partner physicians achieve this by expanding access to care, delivering more primary and preventative care services, referring to high quality specialists and keeping patients healthy and out of the Emergency Department and our hospitals.”

For more information about the programs and services at the hospitals of Community Healthcare System: Community Hospital, Munster, St. Catherine Hospital, East Chicago and St. Mary Medical Center, Hobart, visit COMHS.org.