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Accountable care organizations should be assessed on which patients bounce back to a member hospital within 30 days of being discharged to a skilled nursing facility, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services asserts in a proposed rule.

The SNF readmissions figure is one of four new ACO quality measures floated in the proposed physician fee schedule for calendar year 2015, which was issued in July. The measure would track the number of all-cause, unplanned hospital readmissions for skilled nursing patients. It would cover a 30-day window starting from the time of discharge from a hospital, critical access hospital or psychiatric hospital to a SNF.

ACOs in the Shared Savings Program “often include post-acute care settings and the addition of this measure would enhance the participation and alignment with these facilities,” the rule states.