What to look for in a post-acute partnership

In the ever-evolving healthcare industry and the shift to value-based care, post-acute joint ventures and other forms of partnerships are becoming more prevalent; however, not all are created equal.

A successful joint venture requires a post-acute provider willing to take risks, offer innovative solutions to improve the quality of care and reduce hospital readmissions and the overall cost of care.

“A good joint venture partner can help you be more efficient with your core business,” said David Klementz, Chief Strategy and Development Officer for Encompass Health, a national provider of post-acute care. “You want someone who can help improve quality of care and has the systems and tools in place to support better clinical outcomes for patients.”

Though post-acute joint ventures have become more common since the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, partnerships are nothing new to Encompass Health. 

Formerly HealthSouth, Encompass Health has been forming inpatient rehabilitation joint ventures in various forms with acute care providers for nearly 30 years. Its first joint venture dates back to 1991 and is still going strong.  Encompass Health has more than 45 joint ventures with a variety of acute care providers, including religious, academic and non-profit systems.

When contemplating a joint venture with an inpatient rehabilitation facility, there are several factors to take into account. Klementz, who joined Encompass Health in 2005, said to consider the following when forming a post-acute partnership: 

Joint ventures can be complicated and often take time to finalize, but an experienced post-acute provider with a history of success can help you address the burdens and unknowns.

A partnership with a large, experienced post-acute provider can help you navigate complicated regulatory changes. For example, this year alone, CMS made three major changes to post-acute care payment models. When CMS required inpatient rehabilitation hospitals to move from the FIM functional assessment to the functional outcome measurement tool in October, all Encompass Health hospitals were prepared for the switch. Encompass Heath has been training its employees for the transition for more than a year.

Our scale allows us to identify and implement best practices in all our hospitals in order to improve quality of care and patient satisfaction. Some of those standardized best practices include our approach to sales and marketing, as well as the patient journey.

Is your average length of stay consistent with best practices in the industry and standards of care? Are hospital readmissions keeping you up at night? The right joint venture provider should offer solutions to these issues as well as continuous collaboration into improving the issues you face. Encompass Health joint ventures succeed because we collaborate with our acute care partners to assure we meet their needs.

Nearly a decade ago we invested more than $200 million—and that was with zero HITECH dollars—to build an electronic health record (EHR) system specific to post-acute care. With that robust system in place in all our hospitals, we are now building predictive models and post-acute solutions to improve quality outcomes and reduce costs. 

One of those solutions utilizes a predictive algorithm for assessing the risk of an acute care transfer. The algorithm works within our EHR to flag high-risk patients so clinical protocols can be implemented to help prevent a transfer from occurring. Encompass Health is also developing other models to address post discharge readmissions and other risks.  

It sounds obvious enough, but the financial health of your post-acute partner is crucial to the success of the partnership. Encompass Health was recently recognized by Modern Healthcare as the fourth-largest post-acute provider by net revenue. A healthy balance sheet provides multiple options for each post-acute partnership with respect to structure and location.

You want a partner that will provide high quality post-acute care, collaborate on patient care to improve outcomes and reduce the overall cost of care so that you can focus on your core business.  

Encompass Health is a leader in integrated care with a national footprint that includes 133 hospitals, 245 home health locations, and 82 hospice locations in 37 states and Puerto Rico. Diagnoses, medications, labs and other clinical results are just a few of the data points that go into our business intelligence. Our innovative analytics forecast readmission risk, provide real-time patient updates and offer customized solutions. It’s intelligent innovation that offers you better outcomes and informed accountability. Learn more about the benefits of partnering with us at ehc.news/mhpartner.
 

David Klementz is the chief strategy and development officer of Encompass Health. Since joining the company in 2005, he has helped grow its inpatient rehabilitation segment and overseen the success of numerous joint ventures.