A bipartisan group of nine lawmakers today sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma asking for two key changes to the agency’s recently proposed rule that would reform the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). Specifically, the lawmakers asked that CMS reconsider proposals to cut the time new…
Accountable care organizations have experienced a change of heart and say they will likely stay in the Medicare Shared Savings Program even if that means taking on downside financial risk sooner, according to an association survey released Tuesday. Nearly 50% of the ACOs surveyed by the National Association of ACOs said they would participate in…
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…
Whatever may come, CMS Administrator Seema Verma is standing steadfast in her “tough-love” stances towards providers when it comes to ACO development. As Healthcare Informatics Associate Editor Heather Landi wrote on Monday, “During a webinar sponsored by the Accountable Care Learning Collaborative Monday morning, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma reiterated…
Next Generation Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) saved the Medicare program $62 million during their first year of operation in 2016, encouraging CMS to expand downside risk models across Medicare. Next Generation ACOs accept the highest risk of any current CMS accountable care programs, which emphasizes the achievement of reducing costs while maintaining high quality of…
Accountable care organizations were among the key initiatives of the Affordable Care Act, designed to help control soaring Medicare costs. ACOs were expected to save the government nearly $5 billion by 2019, according to the Congressional Budget Office. It hasn’t come anywhere close. On Thursday, the Trump administration proposed an overhaul to the program, which…
For many years we have heard health care policymakers from both political parties opine about the need to move to a health care system that pays for the value of care delivered to patients, rather than the mere volume of services. While disagreements may arise on how we get to value, the need for this…
In a letter addressed to doctors, CMS Administrator Seema Verma reaffirmed the federal agency’s commitment to “turning the tide” of rising rates of physician burnout and reducing clinical documentation requirements to cut provider burden. “From reporting on measures that demand that you follow complicated and redundant processes, to documenting lines of text that add no…
As the healthcare industry continues the march toward value-based care, CMS has turned a critical eye on one-sided ACO contracts for driving up costs and making little progress toward value. “These ACOs are actually increasing Medicare spending, and the presence of these ‘upside-only’ tracks may be encouraging consolidation in the marketplace, reducing competition and choice…