Speaker: Nursing Homes Should Join ACOs Now or Risk Losing Influence

​Nursing homes that do not join accountable care organizations (ACOs) now, while they are in their formative stages, will eventually be faced with “take it or leave it” offers or risk losing their Medicare patient base, John Durso, J.D., partner, Ungaretti & Harris LLP, told the audience at the Life Services Network annual conference in Chicago on May 2, 2013. Nursing homes taking action now can expect to influence the ACO’s formation and decisions, taking advantage of their existing Medicare patient base—particularly if they offer postacute services such as home care or dialysis. Waiting two or three years, Durso said, could leave nursing homes forced to join established ACOs as “subcontractors” or risk seeing their Medicare patient base “shrivel up.”