March 28, 2024

Adair County Health System joins Mercy, partners for Innovation Award

GREENFIELD — Adair County Health System has joined the Mercy Accountable Care Organization (Mercy ACO) and will be partnering with the ACO on a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Award.

Effective Jan. 1, Adair County Health System will officially be a participant member of Mercy ACO. In July 2012, Mercy ACO became a recognized Accountable Care Organization under the Medicare Shared Savings Program. With the program’s focus of improved quality of care and increased patient value, the shared savings program was a logical next step in the evolution of Mercy’s health care model. The Medicare Shared Savings Program further aligns incentives to providing quality health care, increased patient satisfaction and lower cost for this patient population.

Mercy ACO is made up of a team of health care providers working together to coordinate patient care. The ACO combines the entire range of patient care — primary doctor, specialists, hospitals, home health services — in an effort to realize greater efficiencies and lower the out-of-pocket costs for patients.

Effective Nov. 1, Adair County Health System was also a participant site in the Mercy ACO/Mercy Health Network (MHN) $10.1 million CMS Health Care Innovation Award, which was announced earlier this year. Thanks to the CMS Health Care Innovation Award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, this award will allow funding to MHN Critical Access Hospitals (CAH) and their allied clinics to begin transitioning to value-based care.

The 25 CAH facilities and 73 clinics are located in 37 counties in Iowa and Nebraska. They are affiliated with MHN members — Mercy Medical Center – Des Moines, Mercy Medical Center – North Iowa and Mercy Medical Center – Sioux City.

More than 160,000 people could see benefits through better management of chronic conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. This project will use the in-clinic health coach model developed by Mercy Clinics in Des Moines. This model has been successful in delivering better care and controlling cost. It’s still being used successfully by Mercy ACO. Health coaches are achieving good results through education, prevention activities and encouraging better medication adherence by patients.