Accountable care organizations (ACOs) can improve health equity in their patient populations, but they need more funding and flexibility to do so, according to a report from a group representing 370 ACOs. “ACOs are already beginning to do the work of addressing negative [social determinants of health] to improve quality and control costs for 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…
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…
Many healthcare workers experience social determinants of health, with new data published in Health Affairs particularly outlining disparities in food insecurity between healthcare support staff and clinical staff. Although food insecurity is lower among the total healthcare worker population than the rest of the United States, healthcare support staff are significantly more likely to experience food insecurity…
Decades in the making, the transition to value-based care may soon be complete. In June, Liz Fowler, the new deputy administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and director of its Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), suggested that CMS may soon require providers to be reimbursed based on patient outcomes. This…
Top leaders in quality at NYC Health + Hospitals discuss how restoring psychological safety among their staff affects not just how health care is delivered, but how it feels to deliver that care. The Chief Quality Officer for NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi and Senior Vice President and Chief Quality Officer for NYC Health + Hospitals…
Covid-19 laid bare the long-standing vulnerability of minority and low-income communities in U.S. society and its health system even as we celebrated the power of scientific innovation to rein in the pandemic. It’s time to turn that innovation, driven by an even greater mind shift, to end inequality in treatment. In perhaps no condition is…
Congresswoman Cheri Bustos (IL-17) is hopeful about the Social Determinants Accelerator Act, a bill she’s cosponsored to help get funding directly to communities for the purpose of addressing social determinants of health. The bipartisan bill, among other proposed legislation, got airtime late last week during a hearing of the House Committee on Energy & Commerce….
CMS has released the proposed rule for the Home Health Prospective Payment System next year. The rule seeks to expand the Home Health Value-Based Purchasing (HHVBP) Model and address health equity across different groups of beneficiaries. The rule released earlier today proposes to expand the HHVBP Model nationwide to shift home health Medicare reimbursement based…
The healthcare system is at a critical point in its transition to value-based care a decade after implementation of the Affordable Care Act and its Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), according to CMMI’s newly minted director Liz Fowler, PhD, JD. “The goal [of the ACA] was to create a system that rewards better…