A panel of healthcare organization leaders voiced concerns about moving Medicare accountable care organizations (ACOs) to two-sided risk too quickly, as proposed in a recent federal draft rule, and highlighted the need for Stark Law reform during a U.S. House of Representatives Health subcommittee hearing last week. The U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce…
While research has long suggested that telehealth can be more cost-effective than the in-person visit, new studies are suggesting that doctors who use connected care technology are also becoming better care providers. A year-long telehealth study by Humana found that physicians using a virtual care platform prescribe less antibiotics than they do for in-office visits…
BlueCross BlueShield of Michigan has reduced expected spending by $626 million over a nine-year period through a patient-centered medical home (PCMH) model that emphasizes personalized care. The payer found that the PCMH increased rates of preventive and coordinated care that help patients avoid emergency room visits and hospital stays. Compared to other practices, BlueCross PCMH-designated…
There are 649 ACOs across the U.S., according to the National Association of ACOs, including Medicare ACO program participants and independent ACOs. Around 12.3 million Medicare beneficiaries — 20 percent of all Medicare beneficiaries — participate in an ACO. CMS launched the Medicare Shared Savings Program in 2012 including three tracks to encourage voluntary participation…
Something really quite extraordinary happened this week: NAACOS, the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Accountable Care Organizations, published, in the august journal Health Affairs, a study based on research that NAACOS leaders had commissioned from Dobson DaVanzo & Associates, a healthcare economics consulting firm. And, as Healthcare Informatics Managing Editor Rajiv Leventhal noted in his…
The Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) is the nation’s single largest initiative to move the US health care system from volume to value. In only six years, the MSSP has grown to include 561 participating accountable care organizations (ACOs) serving 10.5 million assigned beneficiaries – nearly one-third of traditional Medicare beneficiaries with Part A and…
Comprehensive addiction training is rare in American medical education, which denies physicians the necessary diagnostic and communication skills required to treat patients with substance use disorder, according to The New York Times. Here are six things to know: 1. Timothy Brennan, MD, assistant professor of psychiatry at Chicago-based Mount Sinai Health System, specifically directs an…
The Medicare Shared Savings Program generated $1.84 billion in savings over three years, which is nearly twice the savings that CMS data show, according to a new study commissioned by the National Association of ACOs. The study, published Tuesday, also found accountable care organizations reduced Medicare spending by $542 million after accounting for shared savings…
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation will soon launch “new, bold” models for value-based care — and they might be mandatory, according HHS Secretary Alex Azar’s remarks at a Sept. 6 meeting in Washington, D.C., for the Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee. Despite the growth in coordinated care and value-based pay, alternative payment…
There were 18 active NGACOs in 2016, with 15 having prior Medicare ACO experience These 18 NGACOs served 477,197 beneficiaries, with 31,070 network providers and 775 network facilities In aggregate, NGACOs served three percent of total Medicare beneficiaries in all markets On average, a 2016 NGACO served about 26,500 aligned beneficiaries (median of 24,219 beneficiaries)…