Dr. Don Berwick on ACO’s: From Volume to Value

By Donald Berwick, MD Editors Note: Thanks to a tweet today via @AxSys_Health CMS Administrator Don Berwick, M.D., explains ACO’s in plain language. Hi, I’m Don Berwick, CMS administrator. Today’s a kind of red letter day, October 20th 2011. That’s the day in which we launch the Accountable Care Organization final rule and I just …

Proposed v. Final ACO Rule

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH Deep in the 690+ pages of the document filed with the OFR, is a nifty little matrix that compares key provisions of the ‘notice of proposed rule making’ to the final rule which theoretically incorporated the best and brightest suggestions pro-offered in 1,300+ comments supplied to CMS. That pre/post matrix …

ACOs: It’s Not Just About Medicare [shared savings]

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH A recent report attached to a Tweet posted by Brian Ahier caught my attention in the blitzkreig of ACOs postings this past week.  @ahier Building #ACO‘s & OUtcome Based Contracting in the Commercial Market The complete title of the attached report is ‘Building ACOs and Outcome Based Contracting in the Commercial Market: …

ACO Final Rule: A Round Up of Early Opinion and ‘Go To’ Resources

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH Like some of you, I woke up the morning of Friday, October 21st, 2011 to a literal ‘blitzkrieg’ of tweets flooding two TweetDeck columns tagged ‘ACOchat’ and ‘ACO’. Everyone it seems has a dog in the hunt to make known their standing or interest in Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), the …

HHS/CMS ‘Fact Sheets’ Per PR Issued Today on HealthCare.gov

EDITOR’S NOTE! Re: The press release ‘fact sheet’ for the ACO and Medicare Shared Savings Programs provisions as codified in today’s FINAL RULE, is published in it’s entirety below: People with Medicare will be able to benefit from a new program designed to encourage primary care doctors, specialists, hospitals, and other care providers to coordinate …

They’re Here!!

CMS releases final rule today on ACO and Medicare Shared Services Program! For complete text of final rule submitted to the Office of the Feferal Registrer today, click here. More details to follow including a TweetChat via hashtag #ACOchat. There will be a conference call and Press conference today with Dr. Don Berwick et al …

CO-OPs The Stealth ‘Accountable Care’ Opportunity

Co-Ops, no not the apartment kind, are entities somewhat buried in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that may hold some hiddlen promise on the innovation front. New wine in the same old bottle, or  incremental innovation at the margins? Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (CO-OP) program to foster the creation of non-profit, member-run …

Physician Hospital Co-Management Arrangements

By Marshall R. Burack, Akerman Senterfitt In recent years, a number of regulatory and economic factors have driven hospitals and physicians to find ways to work together in a more coordinated manner in order to improve the quality and reduce the cost of patient care. Factors causing hospitals and physicians to work together include, among other …

ACO reimbursement, bundled payments, clinical quality measures and public profiles will be based on ICD-10 data

By Lynne Thomas Gordon Healthcare leaders are juggling multiple pressures, including the consistent delivery of high-quality patient care, evaluation and development of accountable care organizations, the careful management of sensitive patient data, achieving meaningful-use criteria, making the most efficient use of the newest technology and stretching revenue to maintain end-to-end coverage of their bottom lines. …

Massmed Releases 10th Annual Physician Workforce Study

Physician Shortages Found in 8 Specialties, Continued Primary Care Shortages, and Physician Concerns About Global Payments and Accountable Care Organizations: Waltham, Mass. — September 28, 2011 — The Massachusetts Medical Society today released its 2011 Physician Workforce Study showing critical and severe physician shortages in eight specialties, a sixth consecutive year of shortages of primary …