Health Care Cost

There is a need for a new stop loss formula that ensures a level playing field and motivates accountable care organizations.

This week, the top managed care stories include Humana announcing executive bonuses are now partially tied to value, Veterans Affairs has expanded access of hepatitis C drugs to all veterans in the system, and CDC releases guidelines on prescribing opioids.

As the industry continues its move to value-based care, health plans need to build trusted relationship for the move to be successful, according to Charles Fazio, MD, MS, medical director of HealthPartners, Inc.

The 42nd annual meeting of the Association of Community Cancer Centers ensured that none of the oncology care providers in the audience left without realizing that healthcare has slowly been migrating to include value in care delivery and reimbursement decisions.

At the end of February, Ted Okon, MBA, executive director of the Community Oncology Alliance (COA), answered questions on Twitter about the latest trends in cancer care and discussed COA’s concerns with the president’s moonshot initiative and the 340B drug pricing program.

A new report published by the American Society of Clinical Oncology has drawn a mixed picture of oncology care in the United States-reduced mortality, increased survivors, and progress in treatment coupled with unsustainable costs and an unstable clinical setting.

Although health plan accountable care models have evolved provider readiness, data, analytics, and the use of performance measurement are important components of plan-provider partnerships.

The newly proposed Medicare Part B payment demonstration met immediate criticism from some in the healthcare industry. Chip Kahn, president and CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals, is also very hesitant about the demonstration and worries that it might be premature.

Public and private payers all heading in the same direction in regards to payment reform is sending a consistent message to providers and creating alignment in healthcare, said Stephen Ondra, MD, senior vice president and enterprise chief medical officer at Health Care Service Corporation.

The average cost per episode dropped $6708 from the first year of the pilot to the third year.

The implementation of a reference-based payments program by the California Public Employee's Retirement System reduced payments for colonoscopies by $7 million over 2 years.

Oncologists now face a cost discussion that was not part of their medical training. It's a balancing act between the big picture of understanding the burdens on the system and "the patient in front of you."

Keynote speaker Dr Julie Vose said the oncologist faces many administrative burdens in the transition to value-based care. Solving them is essential to spending more time with the patient.

The value of the ACO & Emerging Healthcare Delivery Coalition live meetings is the information exchange that happens among organizations that are all looking at the same problem but from different angles, said Tabatha Dragonberry.

The top stories in managed care this week include findings on cancer survival disparities, CVS Health claimed drug spending growth slowed in 2015, and Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey's OMNIA plan is interfering with existing patient-centered medical homes.

Pay-for-performance (P4P) programs have the potential to improve overall quality of care and the prevalence of these programs has increased in the last 15 years. Here are 5 things to know about P4P and how it can impact healthcare in the move to value-based care.