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Speaker: ACOs will provide opportunities for optometry
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LAS VEGAS — The objectives of Accountable Care Organizations are to keep patients healthier and keep costs down, and optometrists will have an important role as the gatekeepers for eye care, Kelly Kerksick, OD, told attendees here at Vision Expo West.
Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are already contracting with primary care physicians to deliver care to smaller populations so they can better manage patients’ conditions, Kerksick said.
“Instead of being reactive, now it will be a more proactive mindset,” she said. “In order for the ACOs to stay profitable, they have to do everything they can to keep that patient out of the hospital.”
ACOs will be paid a set fee per patient per month, whether or not the patient is hospitalized, she said.
Only 25% of patients with diabetes are getting well vision exams.
“That’s a tremendous opportunity for optometry,” Kerksick said. “ACOs are looking at that to make sure these patients get care.”
She noted the dramatic increase of obesity in this country.
“We’re seeing it in the younger generation, too,” she said. “This is where ACOs will come in. Doctors will spend more time talking to patients and be more proactive about what they’re doing. It’s not just about primary care. They’ll provide access to other specialists like nutritionists. It will be a very different way of practicing medicine moving forward.”
Primary care physicians will need help from other professionals, she said.
“I don’t worry as much about not having access, because there aren’t enough ophthalmologists,” Kerksick said. “ACOs will be forced to utilize optometrists to provide the vision care that diabetics need. Most ophthalmologists want to be doing surgery. I think this is an opportunity.”
Primary care doctors will be at the center of the model, she said, and vision care is one of the spokes in the wheel.
“Start searching out where the ACOs are in your area and figure out what you need to do to participate,” Kerksick said.
“The ACO is physician-led,” she continued. “We’re seeing a lot of consolidation with primary care groups. This will be the future.”
The organizations will be accountable for quality and total per-capita cost across the full continuum of care for a population of patients, Kerksick said. Payment is linked to quality of services and outcome. Performance measurements and electronic record keeping will be used as a metric going forward.