Thinking about health insurance? Call to learn your options! 877-702-6045 HealthCompare
Higher quality at a lower cost. That’s the vision for the future of health care, and that’s a big reason why Catholic Healthcare West, Hill Physicians and Blue Shield of California have teamed up again to form an accountable care organization (ACO), this time in San Francisco. (Last year, our three organizations built one of the first ACOs in the nation, which improved quality and reduced costs for Sacramento-area CalPERS members.)
There’s been a lot of talk about the promise of ACOs, but what do they mean for patients in real life? Perhaps the most noticeable difference is in the experience of entering and leaving a hospital. In this model, when someone is admitted to the hospital, an integrated process looks ahead. Follow-up appointments are scheduled even before the patient is discharged, and all clinical notes from the hospitalization are sent to the member’s primary-care doctor ahead of that follow-up visit.
As a result, patients have higher confidence in their care instructions, receive prompt follow-up medical care and are less likely to be readmitted for avoidable complications.
Thinking about health insurance? Call to learn your options! 877-702-6045 HealthCompare