Early Returns: ACOs Improve Management of Patient Populations, Offer Short-Term Savings

by Bryn Nelson, PhD Opportunities to be more efficient are largely under care of hospitalists, ACO director says Several years ago, Presbyterian Medical Group in Albuquerque, N.M., decided to integrate three elements of its healthcare system: its health plan, the employed medical group, and the hospital delivery system. Knitting those parts into a cohesive whole …

How Hospitals Can Test the Waters of Accountable Care

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH Found on the Accountable Care Bulletin. Hospitals considering accountable care strategies have plenty of options to choose from, but deciding where to begin can be confusing. Joseph Damore, Vice President of Engagement and Delivery for Premier, explores how hospitals can test the waters of accountable care, from engaging staff in wellness …

ACOs, Patients, Consumers and the Dark Matter Glue that Makes it All Work

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH It’s been a brutal pace and schedule of late and one of the pieces I’ve omitted from presenting here is titled: ‘Building Patient-Centeredness in the Real World: The Engaged Patient and the Accountable Care Organization‘ proffered by colleague and friend Michael Millenson, aka @MLMillenson, President, Health Quality Advisors LLC. I received …

Un-bundling the Act: Provisions for ACOs

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH We heard a lot about the rough life of Federal legislators when one of the material objections aka ‘talking points’ to actually considering the thoughtful remedies borne via public/private discourse and years if not decades of health policy development and experience outlined in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act …

All Eyes on SCOTUS Decision Expected Later This Week?

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH We’ve been in a quiet period since the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) accepted the series of challenges to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, yet the buzz factor is up via the blogosphere, social media and both broadcast and cable news media outlets as some expect …

Update: Growth and Dispersion of Accountable Care Organizations – Leavitt Partners

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH While Attending the Third National ACO Summit in Washington, DC last week I  had the opportunity to cross paths with Thomas Merrill my liaison with Leavitt Partners (LP) responsible for our interview on ‘This Week in Accountable Care‘ discussing LP’s initial release of their report ‘Growth and Dispersion of Accountable …

Towards a Framework of an ACO (Accountable Care) and Meaningful Use Crosswalk

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH Lets begin with the core observation that both ACOs (or more broadly cast and therefore agile accountable care undertakings) and the Meaningful Use program are for the most part children of statute with intent to impact a less than optimal if not failing health care delivery and financing paradigm. The …

Today on MU Live Radio: ACOs & Meaningful Use Connecting the Dots

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH ACOs, Meaningful Use (aka MU), the persistent ‘whitewater’ of health reform and the quest for the elusive ‘triple aim’ will be at the center of our chat today on Meaningful Use: MU Live Radio. MU Live! is a 30 minute internet talk radio show hosted by our HITECH Answers experts. Our session …

The Incidence of ACOs: The Leavitt Report

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH We’re seeing a flurry of reports on ACOs quoting the Leavitt Partners report ‘Growth and Dispersion of Accountable Care Organizations‘ published last year, see previous post for access here. Meanwhile we chatted with report authors Andrew Croshaw and Thomas Merrill who provided additional context and insight into their findings on …

IPA + HIT (aka technology stack) x MSO = ACO

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH For those not familiar with the ever expanding ‘acronym soup’ we often take for granted inside the healthcare borg: I/P/A = Independent Practice Association | H/I/T = Health Information Technology | M/S/O = Management Services Organization Judging by the ‘anemic’ numbers specific to CMS forecasts for participants in the broad …