Institute for Accountable Care Begins Research on Improving Care for Patients With Complex Conditions

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Institute for Accountable Care, a new research organization based in Washington, D.C., announces its first project to identify strategies to improve care for individuals with complex health care conditions. The project is funded by The SCAN Foundation, a philanthropic organization based in California with a mission to transform care for older adults. The SCAN Foundation is the ideal funding partner with the Institute on this research as the Foundation's goals are to support a more coordinated health care system that preserves dignity and independence for older adults.

"People with complex needs have better outcomes when they receive an individualized approach that coordinates care across multiple providers and settings," said Bruce Chernof, MD, President and CEO of The SCAN Foundation. "Figuring out how to address this challenge inside ACOs is necessary for improving people's lives along with lowering the overall cost of care."

An essential goal for accountable care is to improve the coordination of care to ensure people, especially the chronically ill, get the right care at the right time. To achieve that goal, Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) across the country have been independently working to identify strategies to support individuals with complex conditions. The research goal is to pool those learnings, break down strategies into key elements needed to be successful, and then quickly disseminate the findings.

"We want to know what organizations need to be successful to support individuals with complex needs," said Clif Gaus, Sc.D., Institute board member and President and CEO of the National Association of ACOs. "To do that we want to learn how organizations are able to improve quality, while making sure the efforts are sustainable through efficiently managing costs. We know that's the big challenge facing every healthcare organization in the country right now, but we believe ACOs are on the brink of some amazing break throughs. And the Institute is ready to capture the findings." 

SOURCE National Association of ACOs