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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 […]
A 6th Difference Between ACOs and “AC-Like” Arrangements
Last week I wrote about five key differences between formal ACOs (mainly care providers contracting with Medicare) Â and informal Accountable Care-Like (AC-Like) arrangements between care providers and commercial health plans.
Transaction costs
Timing
Incrementalism
Flexibility
Capital cost
There’s an important  6th difference worth noting:
Visibility
Formal ACOs will be visible from miles away — think elephants on the Serengeti.
An ACO that wants to contract with Medicare must establish itself as a corporation. The Medicare ACO models have substantial disclosure and reporting requirements. We won’t know […]
St. Patrick’s Day Edition of the Health Wonk Review
Head on over to Boston Health News to read the latest in health wonkery! Tinker Ready greets us with the St. Patrick’s Day Edition of the latest and best coming from the health care blogosphere.
Platforms Have Potential To Reshape Markets RAPIDLY!
Let’s look at the U.S. smartphone operating system (OS) market as an example.
In 2007, Apple iOS and (Google) Android had a collective market share of 0%.
Today they have a collective market share of 77%.
What’s the Difference Between ACOs and “AC-Like” Arrangements?
A lot. AC-Like arrangements will be MUCH simpler to create and maintain.
The health care market is moving toward accountable care. There are at least two broad paths forward:
1) Formal Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) by which care providers contract with Medicare
2) Informal Accountable Care-Like (AC-Like) arrangements between care providers and commercial health plans
What are the differences between these routes? I see at least 5 factors at play:
Transaction costs
Timing
Incrementalism
Flexibility
Capital cost
Stage 2 MU Rules: Shifting Competition from Hoarding to Sharing
Competition today in healthcare encourages care providers to hoard patient data.
That’s inefficient, ineffective, and just plain wrong.Â
But we’re seeing light at the end of the tunnel — the proposed Stage 2 Meaningful Use (MU) rules reinforce new, evolving accountable care payment approaches. The rules support moving competition in healthcare to the right bases — sharing and adding value to patient health record data.
Today: Competition Based on Hoarding Patient Data
Health care providers today have incentive to hoard patient health record information. They might phrase it as:
I don’t get paid to share […]
NeHC Webinar, March 5: Implications of a Shifting National HIE Architecture
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Implications of a Shifting National HIE Architecture
March 5, 2012 @ 1:00PM Eastern
COURSE DESCRIPTION: A recent paper by Dr. Les Lenert published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA) has prompted a flurry of debate in the HIT industry and across a number of social media outlets about the shifting sands of the national HIE strategy. Join a number of HIT thought leaders as we take this discussion from Google + to the NeHC University stage […]
“The Future of Platforms in Healthcare” — PowerPoint from eCollaboration Forum at HIMSS12
My colleague Shahid Shah and I are glad to make available to you a copy of the slides from our upcoming presentation “The Future of Platforms in Healthcare.”  This presentation takes place at the eCollaboration Forum as part of HIMSS12 on Thursday, February 23.
You can access the slides here.
While the eCollaboration Forum in Las Vegas is sold out, you can still sign up for the live webinar all day Thursday, February 23: http://eCollab12.eventbrite.com
Here’s a brief summary of our presentation “The Future of Platforms […]
eCollaboration Forum at HIMSS12 — SOLD OUT! 2/23 Webinar Still Available
The inaugural eCollaboration Forum taking place at HIMSS12 on Thursday, February 23, 2012 in Las Vegas is SOLD OUT!
A webinar is available to those who will not be in Las Vegas: http://eCollab12.eventbrite.com
Theme — Collaborative Platforms and Applications in Health Care
This is the Health IT industry’s first-ever event focusing on collaborative health platforms and applications! We take an expansive view of platforms and will be exploring the required technologies, business ecosystems, and clinical care delivery needed to achieve accountable care.
It is […]