health

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General: ACOs’ Strategies for Transitioning to Value-Based Care – Lessons From the Medicare Shared Savings Program

by Gregg A. Masters, MPH Many have suggested ACOs would not make a dent in restraining the growth of the U.S. healthcare spend, nor have a meaningful impact on elevating the quality of care provided to covered members or beneficiaries (patients). From ‘HMO-lite‘ criticism to a range of ‘tepid’ to no patient channeling mechanisms, recent […]

CMS Quality Measure Development Plan: A DRAFT

by Gregg A. Masters, MPH An inspirational leader and ‘disruptive‘ politician taken down well ahead of his time once opined: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country…” John Fitzgerald Kennedy Fast forward some 55+ years and season such an invitation with the relentless drone of 24/7/365 […]

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 […]

IPA 2.0 the Preferred ACO Chassis?

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH Earlier his morning I received an email from a colleague watching the ACO space for one of his clients. He wanted to draw my attention to an announcement by a Northern Virginia based company that supports physicians in independent practice. He also offered his client as commentator on the significance […]

This Week in Accountable Care with Aetna Strategist Charles Saunders MD

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH On the broadcast I chat with Charles Saunders MD, CEO of Emerging Businesses at Aetna. Dr. Saunder’s seat in the house of healthcare innovation is a unique perch and his tenure in the business brings both depth and breadth to fundamental questions we face as a collective industry. A fountain […]

CTE on the Accountable Care Agenda? Junior Seau it’s latest victim?

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH On a day when another athlete dies from self inflicted wounds, and the acronym ‘CTE‘ (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) finds its way into the popular press, while perhaps opening a line of inquiry as to health consequences of repetitive brain injury, we may find the ante in and around the ‘accountable […]

AMGA 2012: The complete ‘digital footprint’

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH The synopsis tweeted is pasted below: Final ‘digital footprint’ for #AMGA12: Reached 66,842 peeps via 273 tweets & an exposure of 638,735 impressions The trade group arguably representing a majority of forward thinking and innovation oriented, in terms of the active exploration of what and how accountable care business models can be articulated, […]

AHIP: It’s Not Cost Shifting, We’re ‘Unleashing Patients’

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH Seriously folks, you’ve got to hand it to the PR firm supplying the American Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) with the brilliant, timely and thematically near argument resistant messaging copy just revealed via a .PPT preso titled ‘Health Care Innovation in the Context of Rising Health Care Costs‘ and delivered by Karen Ignani, […]

Tweet Transcript of Commonwealth Fund ACO Formation: Leading the Transition to New Models of Care

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH TweetReach for #ACOchat – Demonstrating the ‘digital footprint’ of a real time healthcare focused social media ‘conversation…. Reached 20,760 peeps via the last 50 tweets….Exposure: 180,892 Impressions Tweet Types Each pie slice shows how many people saw how many tweets and the impressions generated via the 8 Tweeps participating below…. for real time […]