As in previous years, MSSP ACOs showed strong performance on quality of care measures. But many of the proposed reforms in the program center on whether a redesign could increase the modest savings that have been estimated by the Medicare actuaries and other researchers in the program to date. In this, the first post of…
New analysis from Avalere finds that accountable care organizations (ACOs) in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) achieve higher savings for Medicare the longer they are in the program. ACOs in the MSSP for 4 or more years were responsible for nearly all of the program’s previously reported $314 million in savings in 2017, the…
The lack of electronic health record interoperability and sharing of patient data continue to be major barriers to value-based care in Medicare. That’s the consensus of healthcare stakeholders who testified late last week before the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee. Nishant Anand, MD, chief medical officer for Adventist Health System, said that about two…
A panel of healthcare organization leaders voiced concerns about moving Medicare accountable care organizations (ACOs) to two-sided risk too quickly, as proposed in a recent federal draft rule, and highlighted the need for Stark Law reform during a U.S. House of Representatives Health subcommittee hearing last week. The U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce…
Something really quite extraordinary happened this week: NAACOS, the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Accountable Care Organizations, published, in the august journal Health Affairs, a study based on research that NAACOS leaders had commissioned from Dobson DaVanzo & Associates, a healthcare economics consulting firm. And, as Healthcare Informatics Managing Editor Rajiv Leventhal noted in his…
The Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) is the nation’s single largest initiative to move the US health care system from volume to value. In only six years, the MSSP has grown to include 561 participating accountable care organizations (ACOs) serving 10.5 million assigned beneficiaries – nearly one-third of traditional Medicare beneficiaries with Part A and…
Comprehensive addiction training is rare in American medical education, which denies physicians the necessary diagnostic and communication skills required to treat patients with substance use disorder, according to The New York Times. Here are six things to know: 1. Timothy Brennan, MD, assistant professor of psychiatry at Chicago-based Mount Sinai Health System, specifically directs an…
The Medicare Shared Savings Program generated $1.84 billion in savings over three years, which is nearly twice the savings that CMS data show, according to a new study commissioned by the National Association of ACOs. The study, published Tuesday, also found accountable care organizations reduced Medicare spending by $542 million after accounting for shared savings…
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation will soon launch “new, bold” models for value-based care — and they might be mandatory, according HHS Secretary Alex Azar’s remarks at a Sept. 6 meeting in Washington, D.C., for the Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee. Despite the growth in coordinated care and value-based pay, alternative payment…
There were 18 active NGACOs in 2016, with 15 having prior Medicare ACO experience These 18 NGACOs served 477,197 beneficiaries, with 31,070 network providers and 775 network facilities In aggregate, NGACOs served three percent of total Medicare beneficiaries in all markets On average, a 2016 NGACO served about 26,500 aligned beneficiaries (median of 24,219 beneficiaries)…
Physician-led ACOs saved Medicare $256.4 million in 2015, but hospital-led ACOs actually cost the program money that same year, according to a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The study, led by researchers from the Department of Health Care Policy at Boston-based Harvard Medical School, analyzed Medicare claims from 2009 through 2015….
Employing additional administrative staff, prioritizing care management, and building data analytics capacity were key strategies accountable care organizations (ACOs) implemented to participate in the Next Generation model, CMS recently reported. The initial group of ACOs generated net savings of $62 million to Medicare while maintaining care quality, CMS reported in an evaluation of the model’s…
