The INTERACT Quality Improvement Program

Over the last two decades, federal health care reform in the USA has focused on the “triple aim” of improving care, improving health, and making care more affordable. Unnecessary hospitalizations and hospital readmissions of vulnerable long-term care (LTC) patients/residents can cause hospital-acquired complications, morbidity, mortality, and excess healthcare expenditures and illustrate the antithesis of the triple aim. Estimates suggest that a substantial percentage of these hospitalizations can be prevented and result in billions of dollars in Medicare and Medicaid savings on an annual basis. Some of these savings could be shared with providers to further improve care through accountable care organizations (ACOs), bundled care programs, institutional special needs programs (iSNPs), and other similar value-based care programs [1–4].