Having helped several Medicare Advantage plans achieve significant quality performance improvements (up to 1.1 stars improvement YoY in 2020 alone), Stellar Health (Stellar) is sharing its perspective on what it takes to sustain and improve Star Ratings for health plans and why there is a need for action despite even a few years of success….
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, at its meeting on Thursday, approved several Medicare policy recommendations that will appear in its June report to Congress. The congressional advisory panel will recommend that CMS simplify its approach to alternative payment models. Commissioners approved an updated version of the recommendation presented by MedPAC’s staff at last month’s meeting….
Hu founded CarePort while she was a graduate student at Harvard. The care coordination technology company was acquired a second time last fall by Wellsky, a healthcare technology company for $1.35 billion. Senior Editor Peter Wehrwein spoke with Hu about the new CMS Direct Contracting Model, the latest addition to the value-based care menagerie, and what it…
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated existing health inequities in the United States. Black and Latinx Americans have experienced a disproportionate burden of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations due to economic disadvantages, structural racism, and higher rates of underlying chronic conditions. Value-based payment (VBP) structures have the potential to reduce health disparities, and during the pandemic, health…
As we reported last week, with the change of administrations that will be coming in January, the leaders of the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of ACOs (NAACOS), which represents hundreds of accountable care organizations nationwide, on Thursday, Nov. 12, published an outline of what they consider to be successful ACO models, and NAACOS’s president and…
A team of health policy researchers is arguing that, in order to optimize the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP), policy leaders need to think in more complex, nuanced ways about the framework and goals of the program for accountable care organizations (ACOs). Writing in the Health Affairs Blog, Michael McWilliams, M.D., Ph.D., and Alice Chen, Ph.D….
Managing risk requires collaboration among the clinical and operations teams to develop effective approaches to improving the quality and cost of care. Experienced Medicare Advantage plans can share valuable lessons with organizations interested in improving their ability to meet clinical and financial performance targets, and managing downside risk. Join us for a discussion with…
The term accountable care organization (ACO) dates back to at least 2006. The Affordable Care Act then made ACOs a fast-growing trend thanks to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) launching its Shared Savings Program in 2012. Since then, ACOs have been at the forefront of the value-based care model transition, taking incremental steps…
Dive Brief: The number of Medicare Advantage members enrolled in plans with value-based payment designs more than tripled from 2019 to 2020, CMS said Thursday. Approximately 1.2 million beneficiaries joined plans in the Value-Based Insurance Design Model for coverage next year offered by 14 MA organizations across 30 states and Puerto Rico. That’s up from…
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…
