Measuring performance against cost and quality benchmarks is a defining principle for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). But, to successfully improve population health, patient satisfaction, and control costs—also known as the Triple Aim—ACOs need to move beyond simple performance measurement. They need data in a more effective and actionable format, they need a performance management system.
What is a performance management system?
Performance management systems integrate population data from all available sources to provide a holistic view of an ACO’s patient population. The performance management system contextualizes the data, structuring it to derive meaningful insights to provide a clear picture of population health and the cost and quality of services provided. Data intelligence is then made accessible to stakeholders, executives and providers in an actionable format to drive purposeful impact to patient and organizational outcomes.
These systems are scalable. Performance management systems are capable of accommodating ACO growth and consolidation, as well as future pay-for-performance and value-based initiatives across multiple payers—Medicare, Medicaid and commercial payers.
The four S’s of effective ACO performance management systems
Leveraging your data effectively is like having a roadmap to success for your ACO. But to build the map, you need to have the right technology. Performance management systems can provide this as long as they contain the four S’s – synergy, speed, self-service and specificity.
Synergy
The data ACOs and their providers must analyze and measure to improve performance is derived across various sources: CMS, EMRs, survey data and beyond. Data must be aggregated across these sources to provide an accurate depiction of the state of the patient population. Each data source on their own is insufficient to provide complete answers.
Complete, cohesive data related to beneficiaries, providers, services, care costs and outcomes must be assessed holistically to move toward “whole person care.” Data must also be updated and assessed continually to calculate quality metrics against which CMS evaluates ACOs. This ensures an accurate, reliable picture of where the ACO stands at any given point in time.
Speed
Speed of access to information is directly correlated to the speed to act. And action influences outcomes.
ACO Executives and Providers must be able to answer questions and view areas of opportunity quickly to formulate action plans without waiting for queries to run or reports to be generated. Effective healthcare data intelligence platforms reduce the time and ambiguity involved in the investigative process, resulting in an increase opportunity to action and impact using data.
Self-Service
Access to data is as important as the data itself. Providers and executives alike must have the opportunity to access and query data on their own, enabling a culture that asks questions and seeks data-driven solutions.
Effective performance management solutions provide data visualization and interrogation capabilities with the simplicity of a point-and-click user interface. This enables users to access all relevant information, informing decisions across the patient care journey.
And since most ACOs and their member practices don’t have extensive IT staff, ACOs must have the ability for self-service. Turnkey deployment and low maintenance overhead affords the fastest and most optimal possibility for a positive return on investment.
Specificity of Information
While global “scorecards” or reports are useful, providers at the point of care don’t need aggregate or summary data—they require the ability to determine a specific patient’s discrete needs in detail.
The ideal performance management system facilitates the preservation of nuanced data points, down to the line item. Access of this level of data specificity must be void of predefined hierarchies or drill paths, rather provide intuitive starting points for common inquiries.
Conclusion
While performance measurement is important to the success of an entire ACO and its providers, the need to dive deeper beyond these simple metrics is vital. Utilization of performance management systems for the ACO and healthcare provider must occur to gain deeper insights to improve population health, patient satisfaction, and control costs—the Triple Aim. Ensure your performance management system can account for the four S’s – synergy, speed, self-service and specificity of information.
