Rutland (Vt.) Regional Medical Center is "fairly well positioned" to form an ACO with other local healthcare providers, CEO Claudio Fort said July 12, according to the Rutland Herald.
Mr. Fort said the 144-bed hospital is in the early stage of the process, which officials do not plan to pursue until 2019, the report states. Officials plan to reach out to several state organizations and local healthcare groups to join the ACO, including the area primary clinics and the Visiting Nurse Association & Hospice of the Southwest Region, among others.
By making the change, Mr. Fort said Rutland Regional would no longer maintain the "economic disincentive" to keep patients out of the hospital.
"If we can coordinate care better, everybody wins, right? People stay healthier. We keep you out of the hospital. The hospital gets the payments, the incentives so we don’t lose financially," Mr. Fort said, the report states.
"There's no incentive to try and do anything differently than what we're doing now. Whereas now[,] under a new payment model, we would get a lump sum of payment we could use to put some infrastructure in place to keep people out of the hospital without being penalized," he added.
To access the full report, click here.