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Hospice Partners With ACO

Wondering what your relationship with the new Accountable Care Organizations should look like? Check out a hospice example in Michigan for ideas.

Hospice of Michigan's HOMe subsidiary will partner with Detroit Medical Center's Michigan Pioneer ACO to take care of its patients identified with less than 24 months to live, reports Crain's Detroit Business newspaper. The three-year contract seeks to improve quality care for terminally ill patients, curb emergency room visits, and cut costs that are especially high during the last year of life.

A proprietary software program developed by Hospice of Michigan is identifying terminally ill patients, the newspaper reports. Identification may take up to nine months.

Hospice of Michigan is talking with other insurers, hospital-based systems, and other ACOs to take care of patients at the end of their lives, the newspaper says. "The very ill need a lot of support in the home," hospice CEO Dottie Deremo told the paper. "(People) can have two to 10 crises in the last 24 months of life.

The options have been to go to the ER or hospital. We can reduce this with personalized programs."

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