Defining Post-Acute In The Era Of Value-Based Care

Reducing acute inpatient care bed days and reducing inpatient readmissions are the focus of almost all performance incentive plans in the emerging value-based reimbursement models (see Value-Based Reimbursement—The Numbers Are In). But the reduction of acute care utilization requires more robust and more coordinated alternative levels of care. The question is how do those alternative fit together? These definitions are increasingly important as the health system moves to alternate payment models based on specific portions of the continuum. In particular, our team has been trying to divine the shifting definitions of "post-acute care" and "home- community . . .