November 25, 2020

Sullivan County Community Hospital Receives Shared Savings from CMS

(Sullivan, IN): November 25, 2020:  As a participant in the Caravan Collaborative Accountable Care Organization (ACO) in 2019, Sullivan County Community Hospital has received $244,000 in shared savings from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMs).

ACOs are groups of health care providers that voluntarily agree to be held accountable for the quality, cost, and experience of care for a population of fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries. Hospitals and physicians join an ACO with the understanding that they will make quality of patient care a key focus. If the ACO meets all the quality benchmarks and the population’s cost of care is below the established threshold, the ACO can share those savings.

In 2019, 541 ACOs in the Medicare Shared Savings Program generated $1.19 billion in total net savings to Medicare, the largest annual savings for the program to date. ACOs with shared savings continued to reduce post-acute care spending, along with hospitalizations and emergency department visits.

The SCCH Care Coordination team tackles an array of community needs, including addressing social disparities, ongoing health education and community resource utilization. Ashley Kilpatrick, RN, Director of Care Coordination and a Population Health Nurse, spearheads the ACO program at SCCH. 

We truly have been able to make an impact in our community by maximizing our participation in the ACO.  Our focus is patient care, quality and performance,” said Kilpatrick.  “Working in population health is at times instant gratification. You can immediately see that the work you are doing is changing someone’s life for the better.”

Participating with SCCH in the ACO are the following Indiana healthcare organizations:

Hendricks County Hospital, Danville, Indiana

Henry County Memorial Hospital, New Castle, Indiana

Johnson Memorial Hospital, Franklin, Indiana

Logansport Memorial Hospital, Logansport, Indiana

Margaret Mary Community Hospital, Franklin, Indiana

Reid Physician Associates, Inc., Richmond, Indiana

Witham Memorial Hospital, Lebanon, Indiana