Health Care Cost

The Pioneer ACO Model successfully reported smaller increases in total Medicare expenditures and reductions in health service utilization, for savings of approximately $385 million during the first 2 years compared with general Medicare fee-for-service.

As accountable care organizations work to deliver population health, patient satisfaction, and cost savings, the need to engage patients as partners in their own healthcare has never been more essential. The ACO and Emerging Healthcare Delivery Coalition, an initiative of The American Journal of Managed Care, gathered this week at the historic Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, California, to explore ways to make patients the starting points of healthcare, not just its recipients.

Patients at hospitals with high rates of skilled nursing facility discharge usually have poorer outcomes and higher downstream spending, according to researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Vanderbilt University.

Studies have shown that embedding behavioral health services into the primary care practice produces better health outcomes for patients with diabetes, while reducing indications of depression. The challenge is figuring out how to make the transition to new payment models that reward such care.

A one-minute look at managed care news during the week of April 20, 2015, including the how payment reform could hurt emergency care and Americans want the government to do something about high drug prices.

The ACO and Emerging Healthcare Delivery Coalition, an initiative of The American Journal of Managed Care, will host its first meeting on the West Coast April 30-May 1, 2015, at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, California. An outstanding group of faculty will take part as this multistakeholder group meets for the first time since the announcement of the ACO "Next Generation" initiative.

A late afternoon session on the first day of the 2015 Community Oncology Conference was a panel discussion called, "The Pathway Conundrum: How Many Do We Need and How Restrictive?"

One of the challenges providers will face in the new Oncology Care Model that CMS announced earlier this year is measuring quality and meeting quality standards under, according to Patti Forest, MD, MBA, senior medical director of network quality and performance at Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina.