As Healthcare Informatics Associate Editor Heather Landi reported on Dec. 21, that morning, “The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Friday morning published a final rule that makes sweeping changes to the Medicare Shared Savings (MSSP) Accountable Care Organization (ACO) program, with the goal to push Medicare ACOs more quickly into two-sided risk…
On December 21, 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule that sets a new direction for the Medicare Shared Savings Program (Shared Savings Program). Referred to as “Pathways to Success,” this new direction for the Shared Savings Program redesigns the participation options available under the program to encourage Accountable…
The CMS on Friday finalized a rule that overhauls the Medicare Shared Savings Program, requiring accountable care organizations to take on risk sooner or be booted out of the program. Under the redesigned program, which will take effect July 1, 2019, ACOs can choose to participate in one of two tracks: basic or enhanced. The basic track,…
CMS issued a final rule Dec. 21 that makes sweeping changes to the Medicare Shared Savings Program, including overhauling the way ACOs share in risks and rewards. Here are seven takeaways from the final rule: 1. There are currently four MSSP tracks. The final rule streamlines the program by discontinuing Track 1, a one-sided risk model,…
Even if the Affordable Care Act is ultimately deemed unconstitutional, stakeholders wouldn’t allow the momentum surrounding value-based care models and biosimilars to stall, experts and provider groups said. A Texas federal judge ruled last week that the Affordable Care Act couldn’t stand without the individual mandate, rendering the entire law unconstitutional. The decision is likely to weave…
The Health Care Transformation Task Force, a 41-member group that includes some of the nation’s top health systems and payers, revealed Dec. 18 that members have made substantial progress toward transitioning to value-based payment arrangements. At the end of 2017, the group’s provider and payer members had put 47 percent of their businesses into such…
Interoperability remains one of the greatest challenges in health information technology, and resolving these issues holds great promise to enhance innovation. As we move into a new year, a recent report by the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology sheds light on the state of interoperability and where health systems should focus to…
As part of its mandate for more widespread interoperability, The 21st Century Cures Act called on the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT to create a Trusted Exchange Framework, and Common Agreement, outlining an inclusive vision for how healthcare data can and should be exchanged among stakeholders and care settings. ONC’s draft of…
An updated independent estimate suggests Medicare Shared Savings Program ACOs saved more than $1 billion more than CMS says they did. MSSP ACOs generated $2.66 billion in gross savings from 2013-16, according to an estimate from healthcare consulting firm Dobson DaVanzo & Associates, commissioned by the National Association of ACOs… Full Article
An important feature of the health reform legislation passed in March 2010 is a provision that enables Medicare to reward health care organizations that meet quality-of-care and cost-reduction goals with a share of the savings that result. To participate in the program, health care providers must organize themselves into accountable care organizations (ACOs)—a term used…