Need Another Acronym? Think ‘CHART’ Courtesy of ‘CMMI’

by Gregg A. Masters, MPH In a sea of relentless ‘acronym soup’ that peppers the landscape and too often separates us from the constituency we ostensibly serve (patients) via added layers of dubious complexity to the dysfunctional U.S. healthcare delivery and financing ecosystem, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) has added the ‘Community …

Venrock’s 2019 Healthcare Prognosis

by Gregg A. Masters, MPH Received this embargoed report earlier this week. Venrock has formally released the report this morning. One reason I am fond of their work is I’ve been following Bob Kocher, one of Venrock’s principals, since the turbulent introduction of the ACA by the Obama administration. More recently perhaps due to Venrock’s …

Population Health, Precision Medicine and the Triple Aim

By Fred Goldstein, MS and Gregg Masters, MPH* The field of population health continues to grow and create new areas of exploration and integration.  Population health practitioners are called upon to play a central role as health systems, health plans or healthcare organizations work to implement their strategies designed to improve health care quality, access, …

National ACO Association Weighs In On Sector Performance

by Gregg A. Masters, MPH Amidst the aggressive assault on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) via an unrelenting but unsuccessful ‘repeal and replace‘ agenda, much conversation and debate in the health reform theater since Donald Trump was elected the 45th President of the United States has witnessed considerable speculation about the probable directional vector(s) of reform. …

The Road From Volume-To-Value: The Pivotal Role of Population Health

By Fred Goldstein, MS and Gregg Masters, MPH Two macro trends are converging to further season and ultimately catalyze the transformation of the American healthcare enterprise: the predominant fee-for-service model that fuels the provider ecosystem (hospitals, health systems, medical groups, IPAs, ACOs, or managed physician networks, etc.) and their ‘partner’ financing plans, payors or administrators. Ecosystem incumbents …

The Next Generation ACO: Accelerating the Transformation from Volume to Value

by Gregg A. Masters, MPH  You may have heard the expression: ‘The more things change, the more they stay the same.’  Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr But what does this really mean? One interpretation is ‘change is the only constant‘ or alternatively not much new here – just old ideas rediscovered? Yet if you frame the assertion to measure …

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 …

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 …