Enhanced ACA premium tax credits expire Dec. 31, leaving millions of marketplace enrollees facing higher premiums in 2026. Congressional efforts to extend the subsidies have stalled, with neither a Democratic three-year extension proposal nor a Republican alternative focused on HSAs passing the Senate. A House vote on extending the subsidies could still happen in early…
CMS has announced the launch of its newest accountable care organization model with the goal of providing a better way for primary care physicians and specialists to collaborate more closely to deliver coordinated care for patients, the American Medical Association reported Dec. 22. Here are five things to know about the new program: 1. The “Long-term Enhanced…
Bundled payments are increasingly used worldwide, yet long-term evidence remains limited, particularly in maternity care. This study evaluated five-year changes after bundled payments in maternity care in the Netherlands. Using a difference-in-differences design and 2008–21 nationwide data, we compared 22,307 pregnancies across six regions that adopted bundled payments in 2017 with 69,496 pregnancies in twenty…
Health systems and payers have invested heavily in predictive analytics — readmission risk, care-gap likelihood, and deterioration indices. Yet in many organizations, these insights remain stranded on dashboards. Without a mechanism that translates prediction into action, clinical teams face alert fatigue, slow follow-through, and muted outcomes. This article summarizes evidence from multi-site deployments (2023–2025) of agentic…
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation has released its latest accountable care organization model, which is scheduled to launch at the conclusion of ACO Reach next year. The LEAD (Long-term Enhanced ACO Design) Model is expected to appeal to a broader mix of healthcare providers, including those with specialized patient populations. It is also…
Dive Insight: In 2023, ACO REACH replaced the previous direct contracting arrangement, wherein accountable care organizations take on risk to care for seniors in traditional Medicare. Despite tweaks by the CMS over ACO REACH’s tenure — most recently, regulators modified how benchmarks and risk scores are measured — participation has been underwhelming, with many providers electing not…
Download Slides By creating mandatory, two-sided risk models, CMS has put specialists on notice: they will be held accountable in CMS’s efforts to control Total Cost of Care. The Transforming Episode Accountability Model (TEAM) will focus on procedures, while the Ambulatory Specialty Model (ASM) targets specialists managing specific conditions. This webinar will look on…
“Medicare patients in accountable care organizations (ACOs) face unique challenges, from advanced illness to fragmented medical records”, says Tom Kim, MD, chief medical officer, Sound Long-Term Care Management. How does this population differ from “traditional” ACO populations, and what specific challenges does that bring in terms of care, cost, and quality? It’s a really good…
Payers and providers have long had ups and downs in their relationships, even before the Affordable Care Act. But prior authorization and data interoperability demands, coupled with patient volume and clinical documentation needs, mean payers and providers feel under more pressure than ever before. Value-based care (VBC) offers a care model alternative to the traditional…
After the longest government shutdown in U.S. history (one triggered by battles over health care funding) the core issue remains unresolved. Neither political party has produced a durable solution. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) projects U.S. health care spending will reach nearly $9 trillion by 2035, consuming 20 percent to 22 percent of GDP….
What You Should Know: – A new report from Sage Growth Partners reveals a striking disconnect in the healthcare industry: while only 20% of C-suite leaders believe progress has been made in value-based care (VBC) recently, 77% plan to increase their participation in these models over the next two years. – The “plot twist” indicates that despite operational hurdles…
Key Takeaways: Unmet basic needs such as social determinants of health (SDOH) impede medication adherence, chronic disease control, and appointment attendance, lowering performance on blood pressure control, diabetes A1c, kidney health evaluation, hypertension management, medication adherence (triple weighted), and all-plan readmissions measures. Interventions such as medically tailored meals, food delivery, transportation support, and closed-loop referrals stabilize…