Care Management: A Deeper Dive

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH Earlier I was asked by Lumeris to moderate a webinar on Care Management featuring Deborah Robin, MD, MHCM Medical Director and Eric Mueller, JD, MBA, Director, Product Management. This session is an exploration into the importance and key components of Care Management. In an earlier post, Dr. Robin notes: In …

Universal American: A Sign of Things to Come?

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH Per the recent investor call [to listen via archive replay click (and register) here] the theme was perhaps best set via the following comment: We just want to stop the bleeding… Robert Waegelein When CMS issued the final rule for ACOs one of the first enterprising companies out of the gate …

The Journey to an Accountable Delivery System

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH Colleague and industry veteran Jim Hansen penned a blog post some time ago titled: ‘Accountable Care 2.0: It’s a Journey, Not a Program’, and we followed up with Jim via an interview: ‘The ACO Narrative: ‘Accountable Care 2.0 is a Journey, Not a Program’ or ‘ObamaCare is Toast’?’. Shortly thereafter …

Accountable Care Round Up

by Gregg A. Masters, MPH One of the ongoing challenges in ‘new media’ is to effectively discern the content ‘signal to noise’ ratio given the ease of publishing these days. Everyone is a potential publisher and not all curation is of equal value nor newsworthy per se. As heard at a Health 2.0 meeting some …

My Chat with Nicole Bradberry

On the anniversary of the launch of the Florida Association of ACOs and the vital role of MSOs in supporting the operations of disruptive business models chasing the sustainable healthcare ecosystem I had a round two conversation with Nicole Bradberry, President and Chief Operating Officer of Orange Health Solutions and CEO of the Florida Association …

Healthcare Change is Not Coming. Healthcare has Changed!

Why Clinical Integration is Essential for the Future of Independent Physicians Guest post by Ben Humphrey, MD, CPE, MGO Healthcare Consulting (1,2,3) We’re past the tipping point and are proceeding headlong into new market-driven accountability for quality, cost and value. As these large-scale changes progress, physicians who want to thrive and be positioned for long-term …

An ACO ‘Deck-o-Topia’ at HiMSS14

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH This is the fourth year in  row that I have participated in the largest annual gathering of parties in interest to the health informatics ecosystem. From payor to provider to regulator to vendor to the patient and/or consumer of healthcare services, there is always much flare to consider, discard or assimilate.  …

More than Half of ACOs ‘Save Money’ Only 1/4 Bonus Providers

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH In the narrative matters department and following CMS’s press release on January 30th, 2014 of the ‘interim financial results for select Medicare Accountable Care Organization (ACO) initiatives, an in-depth savings analysis for Pioneer ACOs, results from the Physician Group Practice demonstration, and expanded participation in the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement …

It’s All About the Network

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH 2014 has kicked off to a challenging pace and doesn’t look to let up any time soon! Over at Health Innovation Media where we follow health innovation from ‘idea to business model’ including accountable care platforms, ‘apps’ or infrastructure plays,  Dr. Pat Salber, CEO of early mover in the ‘rewards …

123 ACOs Join the Shared Savings Dance Card

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH CMS has announced another round of certified ACOs participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program effective for January 1, 2014. The complete list is available here. One observation I’ll make is Universal American (UAM) seems to remain active in building a national footprint of managed ACO collaborations. Their risk sharing …