The ACO Proposed Rule: A [Skeptical] View From ‘The Street’

By Sheryl R. Skolnick, Ph.D, and Nick Leventis A first glance at proposed Medicare ACO Rule:  What are we missing? One of the most eagerly awaited proposed regulations under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) as amended (health reform), has been the rule that would define and regulate Accountable Care Organizations, i.e., patient-centered …

ACO Roundtable | On ACO Watch: A Mid-Week Review

On Friday April 1st, 2011 (yes, ‘April Fools day’) at 4PM Eastern and 1PM Pacific ACO Watch: A Mid Week Review will host a special roundtable series on the ‘hot of the press’ Notice of Proposed Rule pertaining to the implementation of Accountable Care Organizations. For the published rule, click here. Our roundtable team will …

IPAs Again

By Jeffrey L. Cohen Independent practice associations (“IPAs”) are gaining momentum in response to healthcare reform and market changes responding to healthcare reform.  In an era when consultants are selling one-size-fits-all solutions, physicians have to consider IPAs as a viable option once again, but they have to fine tune their expectation to recent changes. In …

Head Spinning Post HealthCamp San Diego, Health 2.0 Spring Fling and more

Whew! What a week here in San Diego, and the oven is just starting to warm up in this resource rich county peppered with cutting edge integrated delivery systems, pockets of physician thought leadership, encircled by high concentrations of bio-tech, life sciences and wireless health innovators, including forward thinking academic centers of excellence. What’s all this got to do with …

‘Culture Wars’ at CMS?

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH The first declaratory though public announcement on when industry stakeholders could expect the highly anticipated guidance via the first round of a notice of proposed rule making (NPRM) process, was Q4 2010. Subsequent updates has suggested first a January, and now February, release date. Some of the skeptics referring to CMS as a ‘black box’ …

ACOs Can Work with Physicians in Charge | Study Looks at Effectiveness of a Primary Care-Led Accountable Care Organization

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, Amednews A hospital partner may not be necessary for an accountable care organization to be effective, according to a report analyzing a primary care-led ACO. Physicians increasingly are selling their practices to hospitals, which are buying in preparation for the development of ACOs and other aspects of health system reform. People …

While We Wait for CMS Guidance on ACO’s

Medicare “Accountable Care Organizations” | Shared Savings Program | New Section 1899 of Title XVIII | Preliminary Questions & Answers The Affordable Care Act (ACA) improves the health care delivery system through incentives to enhance quality, improve beneficiary outcomes and increase value of care.  One of these key delivery system reforms is the encouragement of Accountable Care …

Healthcare’s Strategic Mis-adventures: A Trilogy – Act 1 The Hospital Systems

This is a somewhat arbitrary starting point, but given it’s scale, a reasonable place to begin none-the-less; but first a little context. Luke…there is a disturbance in the force! In the post ‘HMO Act’ era, circa the Nixon’s administration’s health care cost containment and quality promotion efforts, the antecedents where laid to transform health maintenance organizations (HMOs) …