On Lessons NOT Learned from Managed Healthcare v1.0 and Beyond

by Gregg A. Masters, MPH First in a series of lessons NOT learned tweets to be enhanced and re-posted to @ACOwatch. In the 80s Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Kenneth Abramowitz predicted for-profit hospital systems would dominate the market by 2000. One of the strategy ‘diversification arrows‘ in the quiver of hospital system executives was to enter the …

The Evolution of ACOs

by Gregg A. Masters, MPH Recently the accountable care industry’s leading ‘skin in the game‘ PPMC 2.0 aka ‘ACOcor‘ equivalent (think PhyCor, MedPartners, FPA Medical, et al) of our time – though Aledade’s model is anything like the pyramid scheme of the PPMC (physician practice management companies) of the 1990s, reviewed the Center for Medicare and Medicaid …

ACOs in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP): Is There a Fix?

by Gregg A. Masters, MPH The Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform just released ‘How to Fix the Medicare Shared Savings Program‘ with lead author and long term managed health care industry veteran Harold D. Miller, its President and CEO.  Some six (6) years into the Affordable Care Act (ACA) provisions specific to Accountable Care …

In Pursuit of the Triple Aim: Can Population Health Management Lead the Way?

By Fred Goldstein, MS and Gregg Masters, MPH Every sector in health care is under pressure to articulate and implement a viable population health initiative that delivers on the triple aim of better health, better quality at a better cost. Despite a significant investment of resources, we have only achieved ‘mixed results’ to date, and …

Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Releases Accountable Care Organization Performance Results

by Gregg A. Masters, MPH Friday, October 27th, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released details for participating Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) for the 2016 performance year.  For reporting ACO results view the entire report here. The National Association of ACOs (NAACOs) weighed in below: The new results …

ACOs Fudging the Numbers?

by Gregg A. Masters, MPH I came across this piece on the Healthcare Blog penned by Kip Sullivan, Esq, critiquing this article posted in Health Affairs last May ‘Bending The Spending Curve By Altering Care Delivery Patterns: The Role Of Care Management Within A Pioneer ACO‘. Sullivan raises valid points as the the legitimacy of …

Florida Association of ACOs Partners with Caredove

Sponsored Post: 22 Aug 2017 7:00 AM | Jacksonville, FL Partnership Broadens Florida Based Organization The Florida Association of ACOs (FLAACOs), the premier professional organization for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and value based healthcare leaders throughout Florida, announced today a strategic partnership with Caredove, Inc. to provide its Statewide ACO membership with access to Caredove’s advanced, online e-referral platform …

CBO Weighs in on Trumpcare 3.0

by Gregg A. Masters, MPH The non-partisan Congressional Office weighed in today on the impact of the Better Care Reconciliation of of 2017 as amended and rebranded as the ‘Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act’. Their summary notes the coverage impact as follows: The number of people who are uninsured would increase by 17 million in 2018, …

What, What? ACOs Not ‘DOA’?

by Gregg A. Masters, MPH When the Affordable Care Act passed in March of 2010 and the law’s many moving parts analyzed by the ecosystem stakeholders including operators, health wonks and patient advocates many weighed in that ACOs were doomed to fail. They were just too ‘tepid’ to make a material contribution to the volume …

Meet the Next Generation ACO Cohort

by Gregg A. Masters, MPH As announced in ‘Next Generation ACOs: A Deep Dive Series‘ we’re launching a multimedia (blog, internet radio, social media and community tweetchats) programming schedule that will focus on the accountable care industry with specific deep dives into select participants in the cohort admitted by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. Written versions …