Question

Your assignment for this module is to fill out the grid below with a list of metrics that you think an ACO CFO should track in order to be successful with the ACO model.

Rules – fill out the table below

1. Pretend that you are the CFO of an accountable care organization that has access to (e.g. enrolls) 300,000 Lives. Your ACO is on the hook to provide the best care and care outcomes for a fixed amount of money that is shared between your two hospitals, three physician groups, and an ambulatory surgery/urgent care facility.

2. What are the top ten metrics to which the CFO should be paying attention in order to make sure the ACO is financially solvent?

3.  You must have at least one metric in each of the following categories:

Financial

Volume of patient care

Utilization of services

Patient care quality

You must provide a specific arithmetic definition of each metric.

Rate or ratio metrics require specific definitions of both the numerator and denominator

For each metric, you must supply a rationale for why this particular metric is critical to the financial success of your ACO. Convince me.

I’ve provided four examples; you can include them in your list but you have to have 10 in addition to mine.

Provide citations from the literature for at least three of your metrics.

Big hint. There are a number of required reporting metrics required by CMS. “Required by CMS” is a perfectly good rationale for including the metric

			TEN BEST METRICS FOR THE CFO OF AN ACCOUNTABLE CARE ORGANIZAITON
Category	Metric Name	Numerator/Denominator definitions		Which direction should this metric trend to indicate the CFO is successful?	Rationale why this metric should be in the top 10
Financial
Example Financial Metric	Patient care margin	Sum of all patient care expenses minus sum of patient care revenue		Higher is better	The ACO is not sustainable if the margin is negative.
Volume
Example Volume Metric	Number of Medicare patients covered by the ACO	Count of patients who spent at least 10 months as		Higher is better	The ACO must maintain sufficient patient volume to provide a level of reimbursement sufficient to cover fixed expenses of the ACO
Service Utilization
Example Utilization Metric	Hospital Length of Stay	Average days of stay for patients hospitalized during the fiscal year		Lower is better	The ACO has a goal to reduce the costs of inpatient hospitalization
Patient Care Quality	Patient satisfaction with physician care	Average score on the patient satisfaction question “my doctor takes time to listen to my problems and concerns”		Higher is better	Patient satisfaction is key to driving increased volume of patients into the ACO.

Answer 1

Please find the response in image below.