Several years ago in the early days of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), we worried and warned about the importance of how each organization should divide up potential savings. In a white paper published in Physician Leadership Journal and on the Salient Web site, co-author Stephen Sheiko and I called it an “Elephant in the ACO…
Although accountable care organizations (ACOs) have never been particularly popular among skilled nursing facilities, timing may be ripe to take on more risk to stay competitive in the market. ACO participation may help operators maintain referrals when so many potential residents are being diverted to home health care, hospice and other tracks along the continuum…
Extensive research and the pandemic have elevated the importance of addressing social determinants of health (SDOH) to improve health and reduce longstanding disparities in health and health care.1 Social determinants of health include factors like socioeconomic status, education, neighborhood and physical environment, employment, and social support networks, as well as access to health care. Prior…
Stellar Health partners with both payors and Accountable Care Organizations to develop a tailored incentive program to reward the completion of granular value-based care actions by primary care providers. The Stellar Health Platform includes the web-based Stellar Application, which delivers a simple checklist of recommended clinical actions to practices based on each patient’s medical…
In the world of health care, change is never-ending. Politics, government regulation, scientific advancement, technology, and the economics and financing of health care foster shifts to reshape how care is delivered and how much it costs. Many of these shifts are completely invisible to us as health care consumers. But they also drive what is…
Will accountable care organizations (ACOs) be the value-based payment model of the future?That depends. As the value-based care market has changed, ACO numbers have dropped and competitive payment models have attracted medical groups. ACOs need to prove that the shared savings model can increase historical savings and retain provider participation. And they may have limited…
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives this week introduced bipartisan legislation to strengthen Medicare’s value-based care models and accountable care organizations (ACOs), among other alternative payment models (APMs). Doctors, hospitals and other providers make up an ACO — the group coordinates care for Medicare patients while limiting extraneous services and preventing medical errors. The better…
Over the last ten years, policymakers of both parties have identified health care payment reform as a critical national priority. Payment incentives offered by Medicare and other large payers create the environment in which providers must choose between being rewarded for performing more services and procedures, as in fee-for-service medicine or, for efficiently managing the…
Southwestern Health Resources (SWHR) is an integrated health care network formed in 2015 with the purpose of filling gaps in care. It’s also part of one of the top Next Generation Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) in the nation. Having an unwavering commitment to lowering “total cost of care” has been a main factor in that…
New bipartisan House legislation aims to boost the amount of shared savings that accountable care organizations can receive from the federal government to halt a slide in participation that has occurred over the past two years. The Value in Health Care Act reintroduced on Tuesday includes new requirements to study health outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries…