Axolotl Delivers the Care Coordination, Cost Savings and Analytic Reporting Critical to ACO Success
Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are one of several Federal initiatives to encourage and reward improvements in coordinated health care, leading to better outcomes for patients while reducing overall health care costs. Accountable Care programs are focused on controlling those costs borne by Medicare and Medicaid, and are administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
The ACO strategy provides incentives for independent hospitals, physicians and specialty practices to form collaborative patient care teams to treat a defined local population of patients – a "virtual" integrated health care organization. An ACO must first meet, and document, minimum standards for quality of care, population health, utilization and costs – then ACO participants will be rewarded with a share of Medicare savings achieved.
It's About Care Coordination
Axolotl Health Information Exchange (HIE) solutions provide for the most complete and effective infrastructure to support an Accountable Care Organization strategy. For more than 16 years, Axolotl HIE solutions have been clinically connecting every provider in hospitals and medical communities to deliver critical patient information wherever and whenever needed. Today, Axolotl HIEs are empowering coordinated care, and improving quality of care, outcomes, and overall patient experience – all the key components of an effective and CMS-compliant Accountable Care Organization.
It's About Cost-containment
Accountable Care Organizations must deliver significant cost savings by reducing inefficiencies in health care delivery and payment processes. Axolotl HIE solutions serve that goal remarkably well by automating delivery of patient records, referrals, orders, prescriptions and refills, test results, and diagnostic imaging. The savings in physician and staff time and other cost factors are significant – and are exponentially greater when billing systems are integrated.
It's About Documented Value
The ACO model requires accountability through measurement of health care quality, service utilization and cost reduction. These measurement and documentation requirements can be fully satisfied easily and automatically with Axolotl Discover™, the only HIE-specific analytic and reporting solution available today. Axolotl Discover utilizes the natural flow of data through the HIE to deliver standard and custom reports meeting CMS, Quality of Care, Meaningful Use and public health reporting requirements.
It's About Patient Empowerment
Axolotl HIE solutions connect patients and their family caregivers with the services and information they need to be active participants in their health, medical decisions and the Accountable Care process. Patient portals and personal health records are automatically kept current with results, prescriptions and other important information. Axolotl HIE also automates proactive patient services required of ACOs including patient appointment reminders, proactively promoting compliance with needed medications and treatments, and providing extensive educational resources.
It's About Fully Integrated Solutions
Axolotl is now part of a portfolio of OptumInsight (formerly Ingenix) solutions spanning the clinical, operational and financial domains of health care. Through this available integration, OptumInsight offers a single partner able to construct the total ACO model and its supporting infrastructure – delivering and documenting the connectivity, provider collaboration, patient involvement, quality of care measurements, and financial reporting requirements of Accountable Care Organization programs and incentives.
Axolotl HIE: an ACO Starts Here