The founder and CEO of longitudinal care firm Lifespark is giving the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services a high five for a new accountable care organization (ACO) model that aims to coordinate care more equitably across underserved communities.
“In a value-based world, it’s super-exciting and encouraging,” Lifespark CEO Joel Theisen told McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse.
Last week, the CMS announced it was replacing the Global and Professional Direct Contracting Model (GPDC) with the redesigned Accountable Care Organization Realizing Equity, Access and Community Health (REACH) model. REACH will encourage health care providers to improve and better coordinate care in underserved communities, CMS said. All GPDC participants who want to continue with the new REACH model must meet all of its new requirements by January 1 of next year.
“This approach affords patients greater individualized attention to their specific health care needs while preserving choice of providers and all other services and flexibilities in traditional Medicare,” CMS said in a press release.
New ACO model is holistic, home-oriented
Theisen said Lifespark didn’t participate in GPDC, but would definitely participate in the REACH model because it is better aligned with Lifespark’s strategy of addressing healthcare holistically and moving it into the home.
“I like the fact that there is a focus on equity, there is a focus on access, there is a focus on community health,” Theisen explained. “That’s what population health was meant to do and that’s what CMS Innovation Center and institutional policy makers have been talking about for a long time.”
Lifespark works with payers and providers to provide a full range of services to seniors, including home health, in-home primary care, assisted living and those that address the social determinants of health. As a longitudinal care company, Lifespark assumes risk with the goal of keeping seniors healthier and out of hospitals.
CMS said REACH will provide patients greater individualized attention and could increase their access to telehealth, home health visits following a hospital stay and other enhanced services, such as meals and transportation.
Theisen said the new model’s goals seem similar to those of Programs of All-Inclusive Care for Seniors (PACE), which keeps Medicare and Medicaid-eligible seniors in their homes, while providing wrap-around services.
“This really gives us a path to be on the right side of healthcare and well-being, instead of being paid fee-for-service for sick care,” Theisen said.
