In 2012 BJC became the first health care provider in the St. Louis area to take on the challenge of forming an accountable care organization (ACO) to take better care of seniors. Ten years later, about 38,000 patients are covered and the organization has regularly met its goals of reducing the total cost of care while improving care quality.
The ACO would like to introduce you to our five wonderful social workers.
The Medicare Annual Wellness Visit (AWV) is an annual prevention-focused visit between a patient and a primary care physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant. The visit is offered at no charge to the patient.
In February 2021, the BJC Accountable Care Organization (ACO) began remote patient monitoring technology using Bluetooth-enabled devices and tablets to manage patients after being discharged from the hospital. Patients who have CHF and/or COPD with a recent hospitalization have been receiving the devices, but plans are to expand to additional diagnoses as well as those patients without a recent hospitalization.
BJC Accountable Care Organization (ACO) has once again improved patient outcomes while providing health care at a more efficient cost for Medicare beneficiaries, according to recently released performance data from the federal agency that administers Medicare. This has resulted in shared savings that will be distributed amongst ACO participants, including physicians and hospitals.
“It takes a village to raise old people, too,” says 81-year-old Valura Massey as she sits in her primary care physician’s office in west St. Louis County, her cane close at hand. She has been dealing with diabetes for many years and recently switched to a new physician, Nathan Moore, MD.