As evidenced by CMS' ongoing Bundled Payments for Care Improvement (BPCI) initiative and closer scrutiny of skilled nursing facility (SNF) readmission rates starting in 2018, healthcare is honing new post-acute care (PAC) delivery and reimbursement models that result in higher quality and more coordinated, cost-effective care across the continuum.

Acutely aware of this imperative, 95 percent of respondents to a July 2015 survey on Post-Acute Care Trends have amped up efforts to improve quality and reduce costs of post-acute care. In new market metrics from the Healthcare Intelligence Network (HIN), care transition management, development of PAC partnerships and integration of all PAC services are the top tactics deployed to achieve this goal

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Customized reports, including benchmark results by industry sector, are available upon request.

This white paper is an excerpt from 2015 Healthcare Benchmarks: Post-Acute Care Trends, which captures industry efforts to enhance care coordination for individuals receiving post-acute services following a hospitalization—initiatives like the creation of a preferred PAC network or collaborative. Click here for more information.

For the purposes of these metrics, PAC is defined as the following: Care received following a stay in an acute care hospital from either a skilled nursing facility (SNF), home health agency (HHA), inpatient rehabilitation facility (IRF), or long-term care hospital (LTCH).

This 40-page report, based on healthcare industry responses to HIN's landmark survey on trends in post-acute care, compiles a wealth of metrics presented in a series of data tables and dozens of charts.

Breaking down findings by high-responding industry sectors, the 2015 market metrics in this report capture the following data points:

• Prevalence of initiatives to improve PAC coordination and delivery;
  
• Strategies employed to improve PAC care and reduce cost;
  
• Population discharge trends to PAC facilities (SNF, home health, inpatient rehabilitation, etc.);
  
• Most challenging clinical conditions to manage in the PAC setting;
  
• Tools employed to improve PAC delivery;
  
• Inclusion of post-acute care in value-based reimbursement methodologies (accountable care organization, bundled payments, capitated contracts, etc.);
  
• Primary responsibility for coordination of post-acute care;
  
• Greatest challenge of administering post-acute care services;
  
• Most effective tools, workflows or protocols in improving PAC care and reducing PAC cost, in respondents' own words;
  
• Greatest successes achieved by PAC improvement efforts;
  
• Impact of post-acute care coordination on clinical and organizational outcomes, including quality of care, hospital readmissions, medication adherence, ER visits, etc.;
  
• Program ROI;
  
• Area of post-acute care most in need of reform;
  
• Respondents' preparations for increased CMS scrutiny of 30-Day SNF readmission rates beginning in 2018;
  
• The complete July 2015 Trends in Post-Acute Care survey tool;