Value-Based Care

Scottsdale Health Partners has improved coordinated care on both a physical and a virtual level through the creation of a secure texting connection for real-time collaboration, James Whitfill, MD, chief medical officer of Scottsdale Health Partners, explained at the National Association of Accountable Care Organizations’ Spring 2016 Conference.

The move to value-based payment is going well, but the real work has to be done on the care transformation side, Farzad Mostashari, MD, co-founder and chief executive of Aledade.

It looks like 2016 is shaping up to be the most pivotal year in healthcare policy in a long time.

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

Anthony D. Slonim, MD, DrPH, president and chief executive officer for Renown Health and chair of The American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC)’s ACO and Emerging Healthcare Delivery Coalition, spoke to AJMC about what it means to be a physician leader, the industry’s move to population health, the ACO Coalition, and more.

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.

Population health, healthcare value, innovations in healthcare, cost of care-these were just some of the topics discussed at the meeting.

The shared savings payments were for specialists in hip and knee replacements, knee arthroscopy, and pregnancy. These areas have been among CMS' top targets for savings, while New Jersey has been focused on reducing its high rate of C-sections.

A collaboration led by CMS and America’s Health Insurance Plans released 7 core sets of quality measures created to reduce complexity, decrease cost burden, and ensure high-quality care.

Howard C. Springer, the administrative director of strategy for accountable care services for Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, explained that the benefit he got out of attending one of the past ACO and Emerging Healthcare Delivery Coalition live meetings was the knowledge from people who have been in the business for a while.

Patrick Conway, MD, MSc, deputy administrator for innovation and quality and chief medical officer at CMS, describes the proposed changes to the Medicare Shared Savings Program and how they will assist accountable care organizations transitioning to tracks with more risks.

While the pace of payment reform is moving quickly, Patrick Conway, MD, MSc, deputy administrator for innovation and quality and chief medical officer at CMS, said he thinks about how to maintain that pace.

CMS has proposed changes to accountable care organizations benchmarks in the Medicare Shared Savings Program, as well as a way to better facilitate the transition to performance-based risk.

Accountable primary care is essential in lowering healthcare costs as a whole and making it care more accessible to patients. Debbie Zimmerman, MD, chief medical officer of Lumeris, discussed how to improve primary care and get primary care physicians aligned with the delivery of accountable care.

For the second year, Anthony D. Slonim, MD, DrPH, is in the running for Modern Healthcare’s 50 Most Influential Physician Executives and Leaders. Recently, he discussed what it means to be a physician leader, the industry’s move to population health, and more.

The profile of high-cost patients in a Massachusetts ACO differed greatly, depending on their enrollment in Medicare, Medicaid, or a commercial plan.

Farzad Mostashari, MD, co-founder and CEO of Aledade, discusses the benefits of Aledade’s technology, combined with its strategies and analytics, and how these tools are implemented among the practices with which Aledade is working.

All this week, the healthcare industry, especially analysts and investors, focused their attention on presentations by CEOs and CFOs at the 34th annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference.

Medicare's accountable care organization (ACO) initiatives now include a total of 477 participants across 4 different model types, including the 21 just announced as part of the new Next Generation ACO Model.

The most read articles from The American Journal of Accountable Care explore the future of healthcare delivery as the United States moves to value-based care.

Mobile health clinics represent promising vehicles through which high quality, cost-effective care can be delivered to patients, especially in underserved areas.

Considerable attention has been devoted to managing populations around the value proposition. Children, as a population, have received little attention in the accountable care organization (ACO) realm. This manuscript contrasts some of the similarities and differences between adult and pediatric ACOs.

For several reasons, including meeting the HHS Secretary’s Medicare quality and value payment goals, the ACO program needs to reformed to equate with Medicare Advantage.

Initial adoption of clinical pathways grew from payers mandating their use with individual providers, but there is now greater interest from accountable care organizations and others to use pathways to reduce variation and cost while improving outcomes, explained Robert Dubois, MD, PhD, chief science officer and executive vice president of the National Pharmaceutical Council.

The Medicare Shared Savings Program is the perfect way for primary care physicians to get involved with alternative payments as Medicare moves to replace fee-for-service, explained Hymin Zucker, MD, chief medical officer of the Triple Aim Development Group.