Back to the Future: Another Run for PPMC’s v2.0?

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH This is about as good a framing of the failed run during the 1990s when the physician practice management (PPMC) industry caught the attention of Wall Street and had a 10 year run before a literal collapse of what many considered a ponzi scheme at heart. Bottom line is Wall …

The Window on the ACO Class of 2014 Is Closing Soon!

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH For those of you not glued to your Tweetdeck, Hootsuite or other business or brand ‘listening’ outposts and/or dashboards 24/7, let me paste a series of tweets posted by @ACOwatch earlier today extracting some key points made by Martie Ross of PYA Health on the risks of inaction relative to …

Patient Engagement and ACOs: A Timely Union or Cute Ad Copy?

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH We previously (see: National ACO Patient Engagement Benchmarking Survey) brought attention to a national patient engagement bench-marking survey wherein @ACOwatch collaborated with Dave Chase, et al at Avado to field an instrument. While at ‘The ACO Must…’ Towards an Operational Definition of ‘Patient Engagement’ we addressed the indica of patient engagement as well as the statutory context of Section …

The 9 C’s of Accountable Care with Tom Doerr, MD

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH Recently I came across a blog post titled ‘The Nine C’s of Successful Accountable Primary Care Delivery’ by Tom Doerr, MD. I had the additional opportunity to participate in a portion of The Collaborative Payer Model: 5 Lessons for Accountable Care webinar which Dr. Doerr led wherein he unbundled some …

CMS Call: Tips on Submitting Application for Medicare MSSP ACO

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH There are those trying to figure out how to best ‘build out’ if not perfect (as in the Pioneer class) an ACO, while an even larger pool ‘leaning’ in the direction of playing, are focused on the mechanics of the application process. As with the ‘interface model’ that’s kept the …

First Round of ACO Results Due Soon

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH Most of us watching and trying to interpret the ACO tea leaves are both challenged yet determined to assimilate a coherent picture of what’s happening at the ‘industry zeitgeist’ level. As noted previously, once you’ve seen one ACO, you seen one ACO. Since there is ample confusion from the differences …

Meet the Florida Association of ACOs (FLAACOS)

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH I just finished chatting with the instigator of the Florida Association of ACOs (FLAACOS). Nicole Bradberry, CEO. Nicole’s story in part tracks back to the first meeting of the National Association of ACOs (NAACOS), where she got the idea to build a state level resource for identify and share best practices, drive …

The Medicare Shared Savings [ACO] Program Class of 2014: To Submit, or Not to Submit?

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH Thinking about submitting for participation in the ‘statutory’ Medicare Shared Savings (MSSP) vs. Pioneer, or Advanced payment model ACO programs? While there is certain overlap and confusion, stay tuned for CMS to clarify both in nuance terms and well as key operational indicia. By and large my understanding is this …

Time for a New ‘IPA’? The Independent Patient Association

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH For some ‘IPA‘ is about conversation and spirit enabled conviviality often in micro-breweries scanning the daily options for consumption. While for others IPA conjures up images and memories of labored if not painful efforts to steward the phased transformation of the American healthcare [non]system from a production oriented fee-for-services silo …

So What’s with the [ACO] Bundled Payment Thing?

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH It’s interesting to note the more ‘things change’, the more they ‘[seem] to stay the same?’ Let me explain…. In a recent observation by Rob Lazerow featured in the post ‘How Are ACOs Doing‘ the Advisory Board Senior Consultant dubs 2013 as the ‘year of accountable care’. He then goes …