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ACO

acn14

ACO Lessons Learned: Revisiting the Timing of Downside Risk

The editor and publisher of Accountable Care News have been generous in allowing me to republish my article from the November 2014 issue.

Click here to download a .pdf copy of the article. It’s in-depth — about 2,000 words.

Here’s the article in a nutshell:

One of the most critical aspects of the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) ACO has been around the timing and certainty of requiring mandatory downside financial risk for physician and hospital participants. Provider protests cajoled CMS […]

ThoughtLeaders: Prognosis for Medicare and Commercial ACOs

A number of pundits are citing the systemic failure of ACOs, after additional Pioneer ACOs announced withdrawal from the program – Where do you weigh in on the prognosis for Medicare and Commercial ACOs over the next several years?”

Republished courtesy of MCOL

Mark Lutes Chair, Board of Directors, Epstein Becker & Green, P.C.

Certainly, if we dial back the rhetoric and the expectations for immediate system -wide transformation, we can expect accountable care organizations to make a contribution […]

ILACO

BCBSIL Refuses to Negotiate Jointly With “Affiliated” Providers. Now What?

Tensions between health plans and care providers have taken an fascinating turn in Chicago. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois (BCBSIL) is refusing to allow care providers “affiliated” through a clinical integration agreement to negotiate contracts jointly.

The ramifications for future network contracts are significant and could play out very differently in other health care markets.

Background

In February 2014 Advocate Health Care and Silver Cross Hospital announced a clinical integration affiliation agreement. Advocate is the state’s largest hospital network and Silver Cross […]

ACOs: We’re NOT There Yet

by Brian Klepper

On The Health Care Blog, veteran analyst Vince Kuraitis reviews a report from the consulting firm Oliver Wyman (OW), arguing that the trend toward reconfiguring health systems to deliver more accountable care is more widespread than any of us suspect.

“The healthcare world has only gotten serious about accountable care organizations in the past two years, but it is already clear that they are well positioned to provide a serious competitive threat […]

ACOs: Are We “There” Yet?

 

A  recent analysis of the ACO market by Oliver Wyman market suggests we’re well on our way toward being “there”.

My personal take on this report:

Provocative, fresh, thoughtful, well reasoned, expansive — albeit a bit of a stretch

However, I suspect many others will describe it as: 

Speculative, harebrained, unsupported, overly extrapolative, out-to-lunch, wishful to the point of being woo woo

So now that I hopefully have your attention, what’s this report all about? In a nutshell: 

The healthcare world has […]

Are Hospital Business Models on a Burning Platform? Not Yet, But It’s Inevitable.

From reading recent headlines, one might easily get the impression that hospitals are resistant — or at least ambivalent — in their pursuit and adoption of accountable care initiatives.

Are Hospitals Dragging their Feet on Accountable Care?

Commonwealth Fund: “only 13 percent of hospital respondents reported participating in an ACO or planning to participate within a year”

KPMG Survey: “(only) 27 percent of [health system] respondents said current business models were either not very or not at all sustainable over the next five […]

Physicians Shouldn’t Wait for Big Data: “Small Data” Can Jumpstart Your Care Management Program

by David C. Kibbe MD, MBA and Vince Kuraitis JD, MBA

Everywhere we turn these days it seems “Big Data” is being touted as a solution for physicians and physician groups who want to participate in Accountable Care Organizations, (ACOs) and/or accountable care-like contracts with payers. We disagree, and think the accumulated experience about what works and what doesn’t work for care management suggests that a “Small Data” approach might be good enough for many medical groups, while being more immediately […]

The ACO Antitrust Police — Nothing to Do

One of the biggest concerns about ACOs has been their potential to enable market consolidation— that by uniting health care providers the ACO gains market clout and ability to charge higher prices.

While this is a legitimate concern about ACOs, so far it’s not playing out.

Why?

 

Medicare Announces 27 ACOs. A New Species?

I’m surprised and intrigued by Medicare’s announcement of 27 new Shared Savings model ACOs.

Surprised

I had been anticipating this announcement as a defining moment for Medicare’s thrust into accountable care. My expectations had been that we would see either:

Boom — a big splash of new Medicare shared savings ACOs announced, including big name hospitals and medical groups that were starting large scale ACOs, perhaps with hundreds of thousands of patients.

Bust — no one showed up at the party. Providers would have […]

Will Health Plans Want to Contract with ACOs? Maybe, Maybe Not.

On the Perficient Health IT blog, Christel Kellogg writes:

I am hearing that carriers are staying away from ACOs and are not planning on partnering.  What have you heard?

This is one of those blip-on-the-radar-screen comments that jarred my attention — and it raises very important questions about industry dynamics.

First, let me expand on the issue.  As I’ve written before, there are at least two broad categories of “accountable care initiatives”:

1) Formal Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) by which care providers contract with Medicare

2) Informal Accountable […]