How tango and WellSky connect post-acute care
A patient is ready to leave the hospital, and their doctor refers them for home health services. Yet that referral alone does not guarantee that the next care team has the clinical information or that services will begin when the patient needs them.
For the patient, this can mean spending more time in the hospital or recovering at home without the necessary support. For health plans, this can result in higher costs and possible readmissions or avoidable emergency department visits.
Closing those gaps is central to the collaboration between tango and WellSky. Together, they deliver a fully integrated, post-acute care episode management program for health plans focused on facilitating high quality, end-to-end post-acute care management. The partnership aligns incentives for health plans, risk bearing entities, providers, and patients across the post-acute continuum. It connects information, clinical coordination, and financial accountability needed to help patients reach the right setting and continue their recovery.
Connecting the path from hospital to home
Post-acute care involves several organizations working through separate systems and processes, and in some cases, across different facilities. Each may manage its part of the patient’s care, including the referral, payment, care, and follow-up.
WellSky and tango bring complementary capabilities that work to connect the otherwise fragmented care. WellSky supports facility-based post-acute care, including skilled nursing, inpatient rehabilitation, and long-term acute care hospitals. tango manages the home health portion, including authorizations, referrals, networks, and ongoing clinical support.
The goal is to help patients receive the care they need in a setting that can safely support them with a clear plan for what comes next.
Making better coordination worth the work
WellSky technology helps care teams gain visibility into a patient's care journey, while tango’s value-based payment model helps align financial incentives.
tango accepts full financial accountability for home health performance and can use episodic payments and shared savings to reward agencies for timely care, quality, and member experience. That gives home health agencies a financial stake in a successful recovery. For agencies, the partnership means referrals are better supported, helping them assess a patient’s needs and prepare to take over care.
In a recent video conversation, tango CEO Brian Lobley and WellSky CEO Bill Miller describe how this combination of connectivity and aligned incentives brings hospitals, post-acute providers, and health plans together around the patient’s recovery.
Results that patients and plans can feel
The partnership’s results show what coordination can deliver:
- Faster home health starts: For a large regional payer, average time to start care was 0.9 days, compared with a contractual target of 3.5 days.
- Strong member experience: Home health member satisfaction ranged from 95% to 100% across four markets for a national payer.
- Financial impact: Millions in savings generated within the first year of management.
Across tango’s broader book of business, the company experiences a roughly 10% 30-day readmission rate, compared with a national average of about 15%. These results reinforce why tango focuses on enabling access to home health, supporting the patient and helping them recover at home.
For patients, the experience depends on what happens once they get home. Can they get to their follow-up appointment? Do they have meals available while they recover? Who can help when a new need arises? tango’s care coordination team helps members work through these needs, including connecting them with meal and transportation benefits available through their health plan. That ongoing support helps patients and families manage the practical challenges of recovery alongside the clinical care provided by a nurse or therapist.
For health plans, the opportunity is to manage each member’s post-acute care as a connected episode, with accountability that follows the patient across settings. For patients, it means greater confidence that leaving one care team comes with support from the next.