Anne Tumlinson

Healthcare reform efforts intended to reduce hospital readmissions are here to stay, experts said during a recent McKnight’s webcast. 

Partnerships between long-term care facilities and hospitals through accountable care organizations, bundled payments and hospital readmission penalties are essential to reducing these costly readmissions, according to Avalere Health senior vice president Anne Tumlinson. These strategies are likely to continue if the Affordable Care Act is found to be unconstitutional. 

“Rehospitalization penalties have the potential to transform the relationships between hospitals and skilled nursing facilities,” she said. “Acute care providers will need to know how different SNFs perform relative to their peers, and data will enable providers.”