Most of the major payment changes to the healthcare industry—those that could substantially realign incentives, reduce costs and help drive delivery system reform—are associated with various pilot projects or other initiatives that will come out of the Innovation Center at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), according to Gail R. Wilensky, PhD, senior fellow at Project HOPE, a global health education and humanitarian assistance organization.
Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa will collaborate with Iowa Health System to create that state’s first commercial health plan accountable care organization (ACO).
At the outset, using local growth factors to set spending targets may better align savings for ACOs with savings for Medicare and reduce the financial uncertainty involved in participation, according to a perspective paper published April 25 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Now that 27 Medicare Shared Savings Program participants have been announced, bloggers for
Health Affairs examined the state of accountable care organizations (ACOs). Turns out, the fun is just getting started.
Despite conflicting reviews about its clinical benefits, cost-effectiveness and additional costs up to $20,000 more per treatment, intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) use increased more than tenfold among Medicare beneficiaries with prostate cancer from 2001 to 2007, according to a study published in the April issue of
Health Affairs. The findings may suggest overuse and could foreshadow a similar challenge with the adoption of proton beam therapy. The authors suggested several policies which might help bend the cost curve.
Under the new Medicare Shared Savings Program, 27 accountable care organizations (ACOs) have entered into agreements with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), taking responsibility for the quality of care furnished to people with Medicare in return for the opportunity to share in savings realized through improved care.
Sixty percent of physicians believe healthcare reform will have a negative impact on overall healthcare, according to survey results from The Doctors Company, a physician and surgeon medical liability insurer.
LAS VEGAS—The change in payment from the government and private payors has already forced thousands of providers to convert to a patient-centered medical home (PCMH) model, and providers need to forsake the concept of owning the entire care continuum, said Paul Grundy, MD, MPH, president of the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative, and director of healthcare transformation at IBM, during a Feb. 20 presentation at the 2012 CIO Forum.
Three U.S. Blue health plans are partnering with health IT provider Lumeris to acquire NaviNet, developer of communication networks for physicians, hospitals and health insurers.
Six healthcare networks aspiring to become accountable care organizations (ACO) are the first to seek accreditation through a program launched by the National Committee for Quality Assurance, a Washington, D.C-based healthcare nonprofit organization.
Cigna and the Weill Cornell Physician Organization, an 850-member group practice in New York City, are partnering to create a collaborative accountable care organization (ACO) initiative, which will adopt a healthcare delivery model similar to the ones demonstrated by accountable care organizations and patient-centered medical homes.
As the healthcare system abandons fee-for-service reimbursement models for the potential savings of value-based reimbursement models, IT services firm CSC suggested that incentives for patients and providers need to more closely resemble each other for the transition to work.
Beginning in 2009 with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the decision to adopt ICD-10, federal efforts to encourage health IT implementation have formed a labyrinth of initiatives for health IT professionals to navigate, according to an article in the
Journal of American Health Information Management Association.
The transition to a new year lends itself to reflection on the past and preparation for the future, and an article in the January issue of the
Journal of the American College of Radiology takes the opportunity to do both by looking back on ACR’s 2011 Annual Meeting and Chapter Leadership Conference (AMCLC) where a major topic of conversation was the challenges facing radiology heading into an uncertain future.
Although the final regulations regarding the shared savings program (SSP) between Medicare and accountable care organizations (ACOs) addresses shortcomings in earlier proposed regulations that may have made ACO entry too difficult for providers, participation in ACOs and the SSP still may not appeal to providers.
Thirty-two healthcare organizations from across the U.S. will participate in a new Pioneer Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) initiative made possible by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Although it’s difficult to determine if a high-value healthcare organization’s specific tactics will work elsewhere, Harvard Business School’s Richard M.J. Bohmer believes that by emulating the shared habits of successful integrated networks, others can learn how to reliably deliver higher value.
CHICAGO—The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) will likely mean severe cuts to imaging, a reduction in the advancement of imaging technology and pressure on radiologists to work for hospitals under an accountable care organization (ACO) model, according to a presentation on Nov. 28 at the 97th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiology Society of North America (RSNA).
CHICAGO--The unsustainable cost trajectory in healthcare is well-known, but much less understood are strategies for practices to thrive as government and payors step up efforts to bend the cost curve. Experts examined the drivers and impacts of the cost curve conundrum during a session on Nov. 28 at the 97th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
Banner Health Network, an accountable care organization (ACO) with headquarters in Phoenix and operations in seven states, has partnered with Aetna, a Hartford, Conn.-based health insurance provider, to create a new health benefits package that will be available to Arizona employers in less than a month.
