The Medicare Shared (ACO) Savings Program – A Tale of Transition

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH In pursuit of the no longer optional ‘triple aim‘ and as once suggested by industry innovator Richard Merkin, MD the founder and CEO of Heritage Provider Network, the ‘gold’ in the ACA may be the programs and outreach of the CMMI. But we’re not obsessed with acronym’s in healthcare, right? So …

Vetting the ACA’s Impact on Health Insurance Operators

by Gregg A. Masters, MPH In contrast to the comprehensive ‘go live’ implementation of ‘RomeyCare’ in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the phased (and some would say diluted if not ‘fatally’ compromised) implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been muted via a staggered on-boarding schedule of its various component parts and further selectively waived …

The State of Accountable Care: Evidence to Date and Next Steps

by Gregg A. Masters, MPH So I registered for the webcast version of this Brookings event titled: ‘The State of Accountable Care: Evidence to Date and Next Steps‘ which noted at 9AM start time. My assumption was Pacific time, so when I dialed in (really logged onto twitter to monitor the webcast hashtag #ACOfuture), the …

Farzad Mostashari MD Unbundles the ‘Healthcare Borg’ at Engage

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH I have been following the career of Dr. Mostshari since his tenure at ONC as Director of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Upon learning of his launch of the startup ACO management company Aledade, we posted some thoughts here and here. Yesterday at MedCity Media’s …

ACO Onramp: Reading the Pioneer [Exit] Tea Leaves

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH Whenever someone buys a stock for the most part they make a decision that weighs available public (and sometimes ‘non public’) information and concludes that the company’s value exceeds (currently or shortly will) that which is expressed in the bid/offer price points the day the purchase is executed. Yet, there …

Changing the Mythology of Hospital Led Value Based Purchasing

By William De Marco Hospitals whose only product is acute care will have a difficult time managing in the post reform environment. Many hospitals have ventured into outpatient services competing with physicians. This has proven to be a mistake long term when seeking collaboration with physicians. Many hospitals do not understand how ACOs actually make …

Meet Redwood Community Care Coalition: A Health Center Nested ACO

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH Wrapped in the ‘population health’ angle but clearly a unique play in the ACO space – at least from the participation point of view of Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC), former CEO Steve Ramsland (a 10% allocated FTE) addresses the audience about their market, approach to ACOs and the deployed healthIT …

Atul Gawande Opines on Post ACA Agenda

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH ‘The debate about whether to provide coverage for healthcare is over…’ Atul Gawande I had a front row seat for this one at the 5th Annual (and last) ‘Health Datapalooza‘, a label affectionately coined by the former ‘athenista’ though always energetic and singularly determined Todd Park, U.S. Chief Technology Officer …

‘Fear and Trembling’ or Simply ‘Lonely in’ Seattle?

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH The old is new again… I’ve been writing and tweeting about this theme for some time now. It was aptly offered as contextual insight via Nicole Bradberry of MZI Healthcare /Orange Solutions and CEO of the Florida Association of ACOs. Many have similarly echoed this ‘deja vu’ theme when discussing the roll-out …

Catching Up with Farzad Mostashari, MD: An Aledade Preview at HiMSS 2014?

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH The HealthInnovation Media footprint was again on the ground at Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2014 in Orlando, Florida. One of the privileges I enjoy as producer and creator of all digital content generated is I get to tag interesting people to put in front of the camera including …