A Fork in the Road: ACOs vs. Direct Practice?

by Gregg A. Masters, MPH In the run up to the passage of the Affordable Care Act (select milestones here), the Senate Finance Committee under the leadership of Chairman Max Baucus presided over a comical volume of amendments proffered by his colleagues on the other side of the isle, see: ‘Senate Democrats Lead Historic Passage …

‘Non-Profit IDNs’: Where’s Da Beef?

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH I have followed this narrative for quite some time albeit inside the industry contained debate of whether so-called ‘non-profit’ [501(c)3] hospitals or their parent systems (really more aptly characterized as “tax exempt”) actually earn this financial advantage via material ‘returns’ to the communities they serve. As can be expected you …

Announcing the Launch of ‘PopHealth Week’

By Fred Goldstein This week Gregg Masters (@2healthguru) and I (@fsgoldstein), along with Doug Goldstein (@eFuturist) are announcing the launch of PopHealth Week. This is a weekly Internet radio podcast (typically broadcast at 12 pm Eastern each Wednesday) with an associated website at www.pophealthweek.com. We intend to focus on all things population health. Our shows will feature 1) people, topics, …

Is Evolent Health the ‘New, New’ Healtheon?

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH There are parallels worth considering! But first for those who’s event horizons’ don’t reach back to the Healtheon era (mid to late 1990’s) a little history may help with the construction of this narrative. Perhaps the dots are optimally connected by the talented and best selling author Michael Lewis in his book …

An ACO Update via Leavitt Partners

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH Just released is the continuing pulse of the accountable care industry (not just ACOs per se) via the consulting firm branded with the imprimatur of a former Secretary of HHS Michael Leavitt who opines from the Red State of Utah on the progress made by market driven initiatives outlined in …

Mark (I’m Not a Doctor but So What) Cuban’s Bold Vision or Big Ego?

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH Last week witnessed a rather spirited discussion stimulated by a series of tweets from Billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks (and anointed judge of entrepreneurial insight on CNBC’s ‘Shark Tank‘) Mark Cuban. What’s perhaps most poignant in this energetic public exchange is it comes at a time when ‘health’, ‘healthcare’ …

The ‘NexGen ACO’: CMS Speaks [again]

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH At one level you have perhaps the most risk savvy and successful operators in the Medicare Advantage space aka ‘CAPG‘ (the California Association of Physician Groups) closely tethered to it’s less geographically constrained though California domiciled partner IHA as in ‘Integrated Healthcare Association’ explicitly advocating for the preservation of the …

Value Based Care: what we can learn from those who succeeded (and failed) in Year 1 of the Medicare Shared Savings Program?

By Randall Williams, MD* “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” — Albert Einstein If you want to lead your organization to success with value based care, I’d like to help you avoid the mistake of committing organizational insanity. As I’ve written before, all value …

Precision Medicine v. Accountable Care: A Faux Choice?

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH Whether you call it personalized medicine or as Eric Topol MD prefer’s ‘individualized medicine’ or even via the possible conflation of the two c/o the President @BarackObama ‘Precision Medicine’s’ initiative (see fact sheet here), it strikes me that we may need an emerging business model glossary to make sure we’re …

Universal American: No Where to Be Found at JP Morgan Healthcare Conference 2015

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH   In preparing for my trip from San Diego to San Francisco to cover the 33rd Annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, see: ‘JPMorgan Healthcare Conference 2015: 33 Years Later We’re Still Searching…’ I’ve been speculating about the broader investment themes that many in the life sciences, biotech and pharma investment banking …