Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) have been around for more than a decade—created with the idea that integrating care providers across settings (hospitals, primary care, specialty care, etc.) and aligning their financial incentives would lead to improved clinical outcomes and lower healthcare costs. And indeed, some of the most effective and efficient healthcare organizations in the…
The Biden administration needs to provide money upfront to help form accountable care organizations in rural areas and give more financial support to address health equity, a new report finds. The National Association of ACOs (NAACOS) released a white paper Wednesday that outlines a series of recommendations to better position organizations to help address health…
While the COVID-19 pandemic rages, the past two years have seen another epidemic of a far different type—in financing and acquisitions of firms focused on serving Medicare beneficiaries. These firms include physician practices, notably primary care practices (PCPs); management services organizations (MSOs) that aggregate practices; and Medicare Advantage (MA) insurers. In this arena, the combined…
Applying data governance strategies can help healthcare facilities capture and use social determinants of health (SDOH) data, and a key part of that process is appropriate coding, according to an American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) white paper. “When it comes to revenue cycle, I think what it comes down to is quality,” Julie A. Pursley, MSHI, RHIA,…
Download Slides Sometimes you just need a little ‘nudge’. Prospect Medical Systems has initiated a digital outreach strategy to positively impact member satisfaction and improve CAHPS scores. In doing so, they learned first hand how their member communications were operating in departmental silos, with each outreaching to members as needed but detached from the member…
Today, the Health Care Transformation Task Force released a new resource to assist health care payer and provider efforts to form successful Alternative Payment Model (APM) arrangements. The resource, titled BUILDING BETTER PARTNERSHIPS: A FACILITATION GUIDE FOR SUCCESSFUL VALUE BASED PAYMENT ARRANGEMENTS, combines fresh insights from Task Force members with existing tools and best practice summaries…
Patients prefer home monitoring for chronic disease management or detection over other in-person and remote patient monitoring options, according to data from the American Heart Association. The research presented at AHA’s Hypertension Scientific Sessions 2021 gave critical insight into how healthcare providers can best flag high blood pressure to confirm diagnosis, a key sticking point in the…
The Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) is the largest value-based care program from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to date. As of 2020, there were 513 ACOs participating in the program, with a total shared savings of $2.28 billion.8 This program seeks to accomplish the following: Promote accountability among healthcare institutions for the…
There is growing concern among many well-respected providers about the consequences of fewer preventive services over the past 1½ years as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. As patients slowly start to resume care throughout 2021 and into 2022, experts predict we will see a spike in the number of severe or late-stage diagnoses that normally…
Download Slides We exist in an information rich world, with data points constantly at our fingertips, and this wealth of information gives healthcare providers the opportunity to know more about their patients than ever before. With digital innovation on the rise, technologies are challenging providers to rethink healthcare delivery and appeal to patients as consumers….