Like all industries, healthcare has its share of buzzwords. Think about it: HIPAA, EMRs, managed care, Triple Aim. More recent rends have spawned phrases like population health, value-based care, hospital-at-home. Here’s a new one that you may not have heard of but surely should: longitudinal care management.
What exactly does this mean? No, it’s not an Olympic sport, though it sounds like a distant cousin of the high jump. The concept is based around proactive care management to prevent hospitalizations and minimize the burden of complex illness. Who’s involved in this type of care? Consider Landmark Health, Heal and Lifespark. Such companies basically deliver old-fashioned house calls — in other words, primary care at home. All three firms, along with the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, spoke during a session at the Home Care 100 conference last week in Scottsdale.
Some notable takeaways:
It’s all about value-based care. Longitudinal care firms seemingly will do whatever it takes to act on their mission: keep people at home and out of the hospital. This means partnership opportunities are nearly limitless. While there is a perceived competition between these firms and more traditional home care players, speakers expressed eagerness to partner with home care. Chris Johnson, CEO of Landmark Health, noted that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has “intentional efforts” to move patients into more value-based arrangements. In other words, home care, it’s time to get on board the value-based train.
Data is king. To play in the risk-sharing game, you have to prove your value. How to do that? Quantify and leverage your data, advised Joel Theisen, CEO of Lifespark.
“First harvest the value you already know you have right under your noses,” he said.
Do right by patients and you can’t go wrong. Johnson pointed out that if you truly serve your patients you also will be taking care of the healthcare plans. He used an example of a woman whose goal was to dance at her grandson’s wedding. Did Landmark keep her out of the hospital? Yes. But in the meantime, with the patient’s clear and ambitious goal, the patient was able to achieve so much more.
In another example of patient-centered care, Heal sent COVID-19 test kits to patients’ homes because it didn’t want people waiting in line.
“We didn’t get reimbursed for it, but it shows how we provide a better experience,” said Chase Dailey, vice president of corporate development for Heal.
Silos don’t exist in this world. As patients are at the core, longitudinal care outfits seem to be agnostic when it comes to medical classifications or categorizations. Theisen talked about partnering with organizations that want to “do value work, not volume work.”
He also pointed out that he would rather have longer, five-year contracts to better meet patients’ needs.
“That’s not how we should be serving people,” he said. “They live on dreams and wants and wishes.”
Rose Madden-Baer, senior vice president for population health and clinical support services for VNSNY, agreed.
“We need to look beyond classifying individuals in medical categories. It’s about prevention,” she said.
Longitudinal care, while difficult to say, actually seems like an age-old concept: Treat the patient like a person. Sounds good to me.
Liza Berger is editor of McKnight’s Home Care. Email her at [email protected]. Follow her @LizaBerger19.
