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MIAMI — Walgreen Co.’s WellTransitions hospital discharge services program has been adopted by the accountable care organization (ACO) of health care management firm Baroma Inc.
Baroma said Tuesday that the implementation of WellTransitions will help it meet its goals for reducing hospital readmissions and enhancing medication adherence, two key criteria in the shared savings initiative with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
WellTransitions is a collaborative transition of care program that provides ongoing follow-up and patient support during and after discharge from the hospital. The program uses features such as real-time patient readmission information and root cause analysis as part of a multistep process across the discharge period.
Baroma noted that it’s further developing WellTransitions as an ACO-specific tool. The Walgreens pharmacy team will work in tandem with Baroma Care Navigators and participating doctors to reduce preventable hospital readmissions by improving medication adherence.
"The health information landscape is fragmented, with individual groups or facilities often knowing only what they have prescribed or what their patients have discussed with them. Now, when a patient is discharged, we can inform our physicians of their patient’s medication history," Baroma chief operating officer Marisela Rodriguez said in a statement. "So as the primary care physicians, they can make more informed decisions and can better educate their patients on how they should take their medications. This access to information will help reduce hospital admission caused by medication mismanagement or nonadherence."
Baroma’s subsidiaries, doing business as Baroma Health Partners, are among the first ACOs. Baroma Healthcare International LLC is the first Medicare Shared Savings Program ACO in Florida’s Miami-Dade County.
The company added that WellTransitions has already been instrumental in helping hospitals recognize the "triple aim" of more patient satisfaction, better health outcomes and lower costs.
Walgreens launched WellTransitions last October as a way to help improve patients’ transition of care when they leave the hospital and lower the chance of readmission. The program was introduced the same month that a new law went into effect that would subject thousands of hospitals nationwide to Medicare penalties for overly high patient readmission rates.
Last month, WellTransitions was endorsed by the American Hospital Association for fostering patient adherence to their medication regimens.
