Healthcare Innovation via YouTube: In 2021 CMS set a goal to move all Medicare beneficiaries into an accountable care relationship by 2030. Recent expansion of ACOs, such as ACO R.E.A.C.H. and incentives for new entrants, indicates that CMS is investing in ACOs that are attractive to organizations like FQHCs. The number of FQHCs, RHCs and critical access hospitals participating in ACO R.E.A.C.H. doubled in performance year 2023. 

The transition from the traditional fee-for-service model into a value based care arrangement can be daunting, as it requires participants to augment their services and shift their focus without sacrificing patient or provider satisfaction. Innovation can be resource intensive and costly, often limiting success in a value based care arrangement. 

The key to success is maximizing current resources and identifying new revenue streams, like Chronic Care Management (CCM) and Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM), that mitigate the up front cost of the transition. 

Leveraging digital health tools and a decentralized model of care allows healthcare providers to focus on the patients in front of them in the exam room. Connecting patients with tools that promote self management, such as remote monitoring devices, gives both the patient and providers insight to their health status between visits.

This results in timely interventions that can mitigate the risk of hospitalization or readmission. Technology also allows providers to leverage data that provides an overall picture of the patient's health, rather than a single data point, like an in office blood pressure reading.

Interventions, such as medication titration, are more effective potentially resulting in better outcomes, faster. In addition, by leveraging a decentralized model of care that provides patients with a monthly check in by healthcare workers who are not responsible for in office operations, support patients in reaching their health goals faster. This includes:

• improved medication adherence as remote healthcare workers can help mitigate barriers to accessing medication
• completing preventative care activities within the recommended time frame
• providing patient education leading to improved health literacy and self management
• achieving health wellness goals such as weight loss

All of these activities are critical to an organization's success in value based contracts, as well as new revenue streams that can fund investment into broader population health strategies.