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ACOs saved Medicare $755M from 2013 to 2017, new analysis finds

December 3, 2019Garrett Schmitt

Accountable care organizations (ACOs) lowered Medicare spending by $755 million from 2013 to 2017, a new analysis found. The analysis, released Tuesday by analytics firm Dobson, DaVanzo & Associates, comes as ACOs are working to meet new federal regulations from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to make them take on financial risk…

3 Underfunded Areas Essential To The Success of Value-Based Care

November 29, 2019Garrett Schmitt

As healthcare continues to shift toward value-based care, technology that boosts patient engagement, harnesses all available data for informed decision-making and enables more effective treatments will be increasingly vital for health systems to succeed. But limited resources and lack of reimbursement for these technologies remain significant barriers, according to the third annual Top of Mind for…

MSSP Participation Following Recent Rule Changes: What Does It Tell Us?

November 22, 2019Garrett Schmitt

Launched by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2012, the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) is the largest Medicare accountable care organization (ACO) initiative and a core endeavor among efforts to transition from fee-for-service to alternative payment models. Existing evidence suggests modest success: ACOs have reduced spending a bit—even after accounting for bonus payments—and they appear to…

FLAACOS 2019 Panel: Q&A Session About Five ACO Value-Based Strategies

November 20, 2019Garrett Schmitt

During the FLAACOS 2019 Conference John Schmitt, Executive VP of ACO ExhibitHall.com (ACOEH) and Dr. Brent Staton, CEO of CCHI ACO and ACOEH Advisory Board member, participated as panel members answering questions with respect to Value-Based strategies for ACOs. A summary of survey responses from ten other ACOEH Advisory Board members to the panel’s questions…

New CHIME Report Indicates Slow Movement to Alternative Payment Models

November 14, 2019Garrett Schmitt

Although legislative pressure to transition to value-based care began several years ago, movement to alternative payment models (APMs) and changes to healthcare reimbursement have been slow, according to CHIME HealthCare’s Most Wired report. The report, recently made public, was based on responses to CHIME’s 2019 Most Wired survey. CHIME (the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives) conducts…

How to deliver value-based care and eliminate waste — Frontline insights from Baylor Scott & White Health & Northeast Georgia Health System

November 14, 2019Garrett Schmitt

Americans are living longer, and the cost of healthcare is continuing to rise. In a 2012 article published in JAMA, founder of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and former CMS Administrator Donald Berwick, MD, suggested one third of spending on U.S. healthcare is wasted. Value-based care and population health are ways to address the rising costs…

To Succeed, MIPS Value Pathways Need More Episodic Cost Measures

November 14, 2019Garrett Schmitt

In July, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a number of changes to its Quality Payment Program and the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). Under existing MIPS policy, clinicians are evaluated based on performance in the four separate domains of quality, improvement activities, cost, and promoting interoperability. Stakeholders, including physicians and policy groups, have voiced concerns about…

Leveraging Advanced Practice Practitioners for Team-Based Care

November 13, 2019Garrett Schmitt

The right care team has the potential to increase patient access, build on new care models, and make care more effective, meaning providers should better leverage advanced practice practitioners (APPs), said experts at Xtelligent Healthcare Media’s fourth annual Value-Based Care Summit in Boston. “APPs do really well serving areas that have decreased access, such as rural communities,…

How To Manage Your Health Care Costs – Beyond Just Coverage Costs And Gaps

November 13, 2019Garrett Schmitt

Consumers are rapidly becoming aware that costs for health care coverage extend well beyond premiums, copays, and deductibles—costs such as additional charges for out-of-network physicians and facilities. There is also a growing understanding that different providers charge varying costs for services—and that other hidden variables can increase the final bill for treatment. But consumer health…

Overcoming Obstacles to Shared Savings in a Multi-EHR ACO Consortium

November 13, 2019Garrett Schmitt

One of the well-attended panel sessions at the Fall 2019 meeting of the National Association of ACOs (NAACOS) was called “Mastering Chaos: Achieving High Quality of Care in Multi-TIN/Multi-EHR ACOs.”  Like the expert panelists at the Washington, D.C., conference, Tom Boggs, president of Bridges Health Partners, knows a thing or two about overcoming the complexity…

Treat ACOs And MA Plans Equally? By All Means

November 13, 2019Garrett Schmitt

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced that Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) saved Medicare $739.4 million in 2018, up from $314 million in savings the year before. Those savings were achieved despite policies that Rooke-Ley and colleagues argue in a recent Health Affairs Blog post disadvantage ACOs relative to Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. Their analysis concludes that ACOs cut costs…

MedPAC throws cold water on glowing ACO reports

November 11, 2019Garrett Schmitt

Accountable care organizations have not done enough to reduce Medicare program spending, a new analysis from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission indicates. The networks of coordinated caregivers share risks, and any cost savings they incur. They do not appear to “have had any significant effect on referral patterns after hospitalization,” observed MedPAC senior analyst Evan…

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