RECORDED WEBINAR: Your ACO Guide to Targeting Costs with Data-Driven Strategies: Best Strategies for ACO Cost Control with Quality plus Claims Data

Garrett SchmittNo Comments, ,

 Download Slides ACOs have struggled with lowering costs, and having the data to use smart strategies. Examine your options and possible data strategies for targeting a key area of cost avoidance: avoidable utilization and other expenses. In this webinar we’ll review the types of data that ACOs have available to them for targeting avoidable costs, and which…

Best practices, legislative priorities and SNFs: 4 key takeaways from the NAACOS spring conference

Garrett Schmitt

The National Association of ACOs (NAACOS) hosted a spring conference last week, with sessions on post-acute care, fraud, implementation best practices, health equity and legislative priorities. CMS officials, industry executives and independent experts gave their thoughts on where the industry is headed and where improvements are needed in the accountable care world. Here are four…

AHIP, AMA, NAACOS Release Playbook for Value-Based Care

Garrett Schmitt

As the healthcare industry works to move away from the fee-for-service system, three healthcare stakeholders have teamed up to release a playbook that details the best practices for value-based arrangements. The three organizations are AHIP, the American Medical Association (AMA) and the National Association of ACOs (NAACOS). AHIP represents health insurers, while the AMA represents…

CVS creating new ACO in South Carolina through REACH program

Garrett Schmitt

CVS Accountable Care and inVio Health Network, a collection of more than 5,600 providers in South Carolina, are partnering to improve care outcomes for 60,000 Medicare beneficiaries. The two partners will create a new accountable care organization under the ACO REACH program. CVS will provide the resources and analytical know-how necessary to scale inVio, the…

Understanding the ACO Opportunity For Hospices

Garrett Schmitt

Though the Medicare Advantage hospice carve-in is going away at the end of this year, those operators still have a role to play in value-based care. The carve-in, formally known as the hospice component of the value-based insurance design model (VBID), will expire on Dec. 31. The program was designed to test hospice coverage through…

ACO leaders share methods for building successful programs

Garrett Schmitt

Successful accountable care organizations (ACOs) have lessons to share with their peer health systems, said five organization leaders who spoke at the spring conference of the National Association of ACOs (NAACOS). ACOs have success stories to share, but those have come through hard work, they said. The discussion was part of the Spring Conference of…

ACO Leaders Press CMS for Response on Catheter Anomalous Billing

Garrett Schmitt

At this week’s spring meeting of the National Association of ACOs (NAACOS), officials from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services were asked to respond to growing concerns about the impact of widespread anomalous billing and suspected fraud involving urinary catheters that is impacting Medicare ACO results. According to a February 2024 story in the…

Surgeon Leader to Congress: Make CMMI Test Physician-Developed APMs

Garrett Schmitt

In April 11 testimony before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, American College of Surgeons (ACS) Executive Director and CEO Patricia L. Turner, M.D., M.B.A., said surgeons seeking to move beyond fee for service still find few physician-focused alternative payment models (APMs) available since none of the models submitted to the Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory…

CMS officials say agency is monitoring concerns from ACOs about DME costs

Garrett Schmitt

Accountable care organizations have sounded the alarm on billions in durable medical equipment fraud, and officials at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said Thursday that the agency is monitoring the issue. The National Association of ACOs (NAACOS) told the feds that a review of data from CMS’ Virtual Research Data Center found…