Empowered Patient Podcast

Tom Kim, Chief Medical Officer at Sound Long-Term Care Management, discusses the role of accountable care organizations, ACOs, in improving healthcare for the long-term care population. The unique complexities and challenges of these patients include multiple medical conditions, frequent hospitalizations, and fragmented care.  By using predictive analytics, telemedicine, and value-based care principles to deliver more coordinated care, patients are avoiding hospitalizations, receiving higher-quality care, and experiencing reduced costs. Tom explains, "So, in essence, an accountable care organization (ACO) is a group of healthcare providers that come together with a commitment to Medicare to improve the quality of care for the Medicare beneficiaries they serve and to decrease the cost of care for that population. And it's a way to really better coordinate care for those residents or for those Medicare beneficiaries to really receive the best outcome possible."   "Yes, so in the fee-for-service world, there i