Value-Based Care

To promote future partnerships among colleges of pharmacy and accountable care organizations, this article describes several initial challenges to partnership formation, including those related to agenda setting and resource utilization.

Having employers and accountable care organizations agree on expectations is necessary for better alignment of care offered, explained Brian Marcotte, president and CEO of the National Business Group on Health.

With the comment period now concluded, CMS has received nearly 1300 comments on its proposed amendments to the Quality Payment Program established by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA).

Employers understand what accountable care organizations are, but they need a better understanding of how they deliver value better than the market, explained Brian Marcotte, president and CEO of the National Business Group on Health

The Hospital-in-Home program implemented at the Veterans Affairs Pacific Islands Health Care System in Honolulu, Hawaii, is associated with reduced costs with no compromise in quality.

A pair of articles published in JAMA examined the quality of studies used by the FDA to support its accelerated approval decisions and high-risk device modification approvals.

Patients discharged from hospitals may not be fully equipped with the information they need to select a high-quality skilled nursing facility (SNF), according to a new study.

Coverage of our peer-reviewed research in the healthcare and mainstream press.

Many accountable care organizations participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program focus on disease control and medication use, but a new study published in JAMA Cardiology has found that the programs have not made any meaningful changes in medication use or adherence.

Zirui Song, MD, PhD, resident at Massachusetts General Hospital, discussed his research interests, which center on strategies to control healthcare spending while improving the quality of care. He also expressed the importance of examining health equity within the United States healthcare system.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have recognized that narrow provider networks are quite likely to exclude National Cancer Institute—Designated Cancer Centers or National Comprehensive Cancer Network Cancer Centers, which could prevent patient access to high-quality cancer care.

The National Quality Forum (NQF) has issued a report detailing the results of its experiment with including social risk factors in its risk adjustment models for performance measures.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended that CMS should take steps to prevent lower quality hospitals from qualifying for value-based bonuses, after a report by the office found that some bonuses in recent years had rewarded poorly-rated hospitals.

Public and private payment reforms such as accountable care organization contracts have shown some initial evidence of changes in physician behavior, but their full promise remains to be seen, according to Zirui Song, MD, PhD, resident at Massachusetts General Hospital.

In the June issue of The American Journal of Accountable Care®, authors described how their accountable care organization achieved impressive shared savings.

Oncologists envision a move towards using data to become a learning health system, which is aided by the changing landscape emphasizing quality and value, explained Bobby Green, MD, MSCE, senior vice president of clinical oncology at Flatiron Health.

This study identifies practices and perceptions around public reporting of “roll-upâ€

In response to trepidation from clinicians, CMS has announced a proposal to alter the rules of the Quality Payment Program established by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). The changes will exempt thousands of physicians from quality reporting requirements and allow small practices to form “virtual groups” with one another.

Coverage from the 2017 Spring Live Meeting of the ACO & Emerging Healthcare Delivery Coalition® on May 4-5, 2017, in Scottsdale, Arizona.

This qualitative study draws on interviews with clinical staff to examine health workforce use within accountable care organizations and identifies common roles that support value-based care.

Increasing accountable care organization savings is dependent on maximizing quality scores and increasing the number of beneficiaries while maintaining a low per-capita spend through efficiencies of care.

Ongoing legislative developments and the latest experiences with implementing alternative payment mechanisms are just some of the reasons Clifford Goodman, PhD, senior vice president and director at the Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research at the Lewin Group, is looking forward to the fall meeting of the ACO & Emerging Healthcare Delivery Coalition.

Amidst a turbulent political climate as Republicans endeavor to enact the American Health Care Act, the shift to value-based contracts will continue due to the other market forces in play, explained Clifford Goodman, PhD, moderator at the ACO Coalition spring live meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona, and senior vice president and director at the Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research at the Lewin Group.

Thresholds can be useful to focus the conversation around the value of treatments in healthcare even if stakeholders have different views on what thresholds should be, explained Steve Pearson, MD, MSc, president of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review.