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September 29, 2014 | Market Watch

Aetna Introduces Multi-Physician Group Accountable Care Collaboration in Colorado

Aetna (NYSE: AET) today announced an accountable care collaboration with Banner Network Colorado, Colorado Health Neighborhoods, New West Physicians and Physician Health Partners, along with the introduction of the Aetna Whole HealthSM...

September 29, 2014

Legislation Aims for More ACO Flexibility

Proposed legislation introduced in the U.S. House calls for Medicare to pilot a reimbursement mechanism for accountable care organizations based on outcomes and encourages ACO use of telehealth and remote patient monitoring services. Rep...

September 29, 2014 | Phoenix Business Journal

Why medical students don't want to become primary care doctors

It’s no secret that America has a shortage of primary care physicians and that the shortage is only going to get worse as the Affordable Care Act provides access to care for more U.S. citizens. Phoenix has one of the worst physician...

September 26, 2014 | FierceHealthPayer

Docs leery of sharing risk with payers in value-based reimbursement: This lack of trust called "a huge hurdle' for insurance companies

Physician distrust of payers is a significant impediment to creating value-based reimbursement programs, according to a new survey from global business advisory firm FTI Consulting. In fact, 41 percent of physicians who do not participate...

September 26, 2014 | OncLive

Practices in Bundled Payment Program Credit Medical Home Structure for Success

In July, UnitedHealthcare (UHC) reported that an innovative program using bundled payment for cancer care resulted in an impressive 34% reduction in medical costs when compared with costs for a control group. Moreover, the study found that...

September 26, 2014 | Modern Healthcare

For their first year, ACOs see varied scores in quality measures

Quality varied widely among Medicare accountable care organizations during their first year, with a few earning millions of dollars in bonuses but scoring below average on all but a handful of quality measures. On Sept. 23, federal...

September 26, 2014 | iHealthBeat

House Bill Would Allow ACOs To Expand Use of Telehealth Services

Two lawmakers have introduced a bill (HR 5558) that aims to improve the accountable care organization model in part by allowing ACOs to expand telehealth services, Becker's Hospital Review's "Health IT & CIO Review" reports Bill...

September 26, 2014 | Healthcare Finance News

ACOs restrained by IT obstacles: Interoperability and technology costs cited as challenges

The ability of accountable care organizations to meet the goals of improving care and lowering costs may be hindered by health IT obstacles suggests a new analysis. Of the 62 ACOs polled by Premier healthcare alliance this past summer, 88...

September 25, 2014 | Modern Healthcare

Medicare's Pioneer program down to 19 ACOs after three more exit

Three more accountable care organizations dropped out of Medicare's Pioneer program, which was designed to test the payment and delivery model with a small group of elite providers deemed best prepared to handle the operational demands and...

September 25, 2014 | The Huffington Post

How an Influential Group of Doctors Exerts Influence Over Medicare Payments to Physicians

Imagine a scenario in which Exxon Mobil recommends to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) how much carbon dioxide that oil and gas companies should be allowed to emit -- and the EPA approves those recommendations 90 percent of...

September 25, 2014 | Universal American Corp.

Primary Care Physician-Led ACOs, in Partnership with Universal American Subsidiary, Generated $57 Million in Savings for Medicare Shared Savings Program

Universal American Corp. (NYSE:UAM) announced today that the Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) it formed in partnership with primary care physicians generated $57 million in total program savings for the Centers for Medicare &...

September 25, 2014 | Healthcare Finance News

Demography drives Medicare disparities

New research by the Brookings Institution suggests that socioeconomic factors can account for most of the geographical variation in Medicare spending. These findings contradict previous research that claimed geographic differences in “...

September 24, 2014 | Health Leaders Media

Congress Mulls Primary Care Doc 'Re-entry' Plan Bill: A bill introduced by John Sarbanes (D-MD) would address the nation's primary care physician shortage by funding pilot programs for mid-career, retired, and retiring physicians to continue practicing medicine.

There's a bill floating around in Congress that addresses the nation's primary care physician shortage. It's called the Primary Care Physician Reentry Act. It's sponsored by Rep. John P. Sarbanes, (D-MD), and there's plenty to like about...

September 24, 2014 | Modern Healthcare

ACOs struggle with advanced IT, interoperability, survey shows

Many accountable care organizations are struggling with advanced IT functions and interoperability, a survey of 62 ACOs conducted in July and August 2014 by Premier and the eHealth Initiative shows. “Most ACOs are still at the stage of...

September 24, 2014 | Fierce Healthcare

Lack of education breeds disparities despite equal access to care

Improved access to healthcare under the Affordable Care Act won't necessarily narrow the care disadvantage gap for less educated patients, according to a new brief from the Virginia Commonwealth University's (VCU) Center on Society and...

September 23, 2014 | Medical Xpress

Unless Congress acts, patients may soon lose access to primary care

A national report showing the benefits of preventing a reduction in the rates physicians receive for providing Medicaid services was released today by the American College of Physicians (ACP). The report, "Why Congress Must Save the...

September 23, 2014 | The Gerontological Society of America

New Hartford Change AGEnts Network to Optimize Patient Centered Medical Homes for Older Patients and Their Families

The Hartford Change AGEnts Initiative today announced the formal launch of the new Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Network, which will seek to ensure that the PCMH — a highly coordinated, team-based model of primary care — delivers...

September 23, 2014 | New York Times

A Health Care Success Story

IT may have been the most influential magazine article of the past decade. In June of 2009, the doctor and writer Atul Gawande published a piece in The New Yorker called “The Cost Conundrum,” which examined why the small border city of...

September 23, 2014 | HealthDay

Report Identifies Game Changers for U.S. Health Care: Recent innovations, developments may transform direction of patient care in next decade, researchers say

Imagine if doctors and hospitals got paid for providing better care, not more care, and consumers had better data for making informed health choices. A new report suggests that's the direction the U.S. health system is headed. The report...

September 22, 2014 | Modern Healthcare

Medicare gives first glimpse of ACO quality performance

The CMS for the first time publicly released individual performance data for Medicare accountable care organizations on 33 measures of healthcare quality. The results for 220 of the participants (PDF) in the Medicare Shared Savings...