July 8, 2025
The Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medical Association has launched the Value-Based Care Joint Alliance with LTC ACO to encourage assisted living and other long-term care providers to participate in Medicare’s value-based care programs.
Additional goals of the alliance are to enhance care quality, maximize shared saving opportunities and increase provider participation in models such as the Medicare Shared Savings Program.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has a goal of transitioning 100% of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries to value-based care services by 2031. But providers continue to face participation challenges due to financial, operational and technological barriers, PALTmed said.
“If providers are not meaningfully participating in value-based care, they risk being penalized or even excluded from participating in Medicare / Medicaid programs in time,” PALTmed’s immediate past president, Rajeev Kumar, MD, CMD, FACP, told McKnight’s Senior Living. “Most important, value-based care programs are designed to empower providers to provide safe, effective and goal concordant clinical care to our patients.”
The joint alliance between PALTmed and LTC ACO intends to close the gap by providing tools, resources and guidance to help operators succeed in value-based care. PALTmed said that it chose LTC ACO as its charter ACO collaborator due to its expertise in long-term care settings, generating more than $130 million in savings since 2018. And although LTC ACO is the first group in the alliance, it isn’t exclusive. Others may join at a later date.
Kumar said that the initiative helps further PALTmed’s mission of “empowering compassionate and skilled clinicians to deliver person-centered care in the post-acute and long-term care continuum.”
As part of that continuum, assisted living residents can receive care from physicians participating in the ACO. Assisted living residents who are part of a continuing care retirement / life plan community will benefit “significantly” by receiving skilled services within the skilled nursing part of the community when necessary, Kumar said.
“Much of the quality improvement and cost savings in an ACO are generated by avoiding hospitalization, and long-term care nursing facility residents benefit by receiving skilled nursing facility-level of care right in the facility — bypassing the emergency room and a three-day hospitalization requirement,” Kumar said.
Once a provider joins the ACO, its residents or patients will have the option to opt out. Although PALTmed has not directly contacted communities because of the attribution of residents/patients that occurs through clinical providers, Kumar said, brochures will be posted at participating communities to inform the public about the ACO’s presence in an assisted living community, CCRC or nursing home.
The Value-Based Care Joint Alliance also will provide access to a comprehensive online library of clinical and operational guidance tailored to long-term care providers. Key success factors include beneficiary attribution, quality enhancement, and improved clinical and cost performance, according to the group.
Kumar said that the alliance will offer specialized educational resources and practical tools to help providers be successful in value-based care. Developed by LTC ACO and PALTmed, the resources will offer providers and clinicians strategies to succeed in Medicare’s value-based care programs. Industry experts also will be available to offer guidance and support for ongoing program implementation.
There is no cost to providers to participate in the ACO or the joint alliance, and participating providers will receive a share of the savings generated by their quality of care to residents. In addition, all PALTmed members and LTC ACO providers will have access to the resources through PALTmed’s member portal.
