The head of the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) said recently that the department will aggressively push to implement value-based payment, extending beyond ACOs and bundled payment initiatives. “ . . . we want to look at bold measures that will fundamentally reorient how Medicare and Medicaid pay for care and create a […]
Health experts have long argued that value-based payment would both improve quality and decrease/control healthcare costs. Now, five state governors have put into writing a set of policies and initiatives they believe could reduce the share of the economy consumed by health care. Value-based payment figures substantially into their “blueprint” for improving health care. […]
“Hospitals will face greater competition, risk of volume declines and margin erosion as the nation’s largest commercial health insurers aggressively pursue growth strategies that are aimed at lowering healthcare spending,” according to Moody’s Investors Service. Insurers’ strategies include: Acquisition of physician groups Acquisition of non-acute care services Tougher contract negotiations Greater restrictions on […]
Although written about widely in the last week, let’s recap how hospitals benefit under the budget deal signed into law on February 9. A two-year delay in cuts to Disproportionate Share Hospital payments Medicare payment extensions for rural providers Four additional years of funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program Opioid addiction funding Repeal […]
The budget deal passed late last week establishes the ACO “Beneficiary Incentive Program,” said by some to motivate beneficiaries to be more engaged in their care. The program would allow ACOs to pay patients if they make primary-care appointments. The budget agreement also will allow beneficiaries to assign a physician in an ACO […]
Getting physicians on board with value-based payment models does not necessarily mean they are convinced of the efficacy of these models, according to a recent survey by Leavitt Partners. A summary of the survey results appears below: Only 20 percent of physician respondents said either bundled payments or hospital-led ACOs would contain healthcare costs. […]
The American Health Lawyers Association released its list of the top 10 healthcare issues for 2018. Not surprisingly, healthcare reform and the status and future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) came in first. Emergency preparedness, telemedicine and digital health and the opioid epidemic also made the list. The full list appears below, followed by […]
Hospitals will see some of their leading regulatory concerns addressed in 2018 by CMS, according to Seema Verma, administrator of CMS. Verma noted that the Administration “is committed to reducing the regulatory burden on hospitals.” Verma made her comments to the American Hospital Association (AHA) last week. The AHA’s president and CEO, Rick Pollack, […]
States that expanded Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) experienced improved financial performance and substantially lower likelihoods of closure, especially in rural markets and counties that had large numbers of uninsured adults before Medicaid expansion, according to researchers at the University of Colorado School of Public Health. “Those hospitals in the states […]
Hospitals and health systems, looking for economies of scale and the potential for reducing the cost of care, have increasingly taken the merger and acquisition (M&A) route. In partnership with the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, HFMA conducted a study of more than 750 merger transactions between 2008 and 2014 to examine how M&A affects […]