There is an understandable fear and a little outrage right now about health care budget cuts. Some proposed cuts will raise the amount of unfunded care for hospitals and physicians if Medicaid coverage is reduced, and impact patients in nursing homes. Other proposals will eliminate offsets for medical debt or physician education through residency programs. […]
Curate Your Data to Tackle Cost of Care: Master These Basics
The staggering reality that health care could soon account for one fifth of all domestic spending has put a bull’s eye on health care cost control. Is your ACO, health system, or physician organization ready to manage the coming congressional budget cuts? The only effective way to tackle Total Costs of Patient Care (TCoC) without […]
Value-Based Care 2025: Providers Must Win the War on Costs
Health systems and ACOs: Prepare yourself for the return to cost containment as the central objective of Value-Based Care in 2025. While cost measures have always been part of CMS Value-Based Care quality programs, their impact was small relative to the total MIPS score for physician groups. Likewise, ACO savings look big in dollars but […]
Your ACO May Already Be Late for APP Reporting. Here’s How to Catch Up!
With one year remaining before mandatory APP Reporting in 2026, the idea that you’re already late may sound exaggerated. But consider the significance of what you’re undertaking: This is your first effort to report quality on all your beneficiaries, not just a tiny sliver of patients. It’s a huge leap that requires a lot of […]
To Unlock ACO Access to Real Savings, Start with Trusted Data
Value-Based Care payment models are based on a clear CMS goal: lower Total Cost of Care and its counterpart, Total Per Capita Cost. But neither TCoC nor TPCC gives you the information you need to target your cost efforts. How to start? Begin by evaluating what initiatives you need to do in the five key […]
5 Ways Your ACO Should Leverage Data for Cost Control
In creating your strategies for cost control, your ACO must consider how to reduce Total Per Capita Cost (TPCC) while ensuring the financial survival of your ACO and participating providers. This balancing act is the dilemma facing all providers adopting Value-Based Care: how to achieve more savings while replacing revenue lost from services. Here’s how […]
Strategies for Right Now to Control Patient Care Costs
Policymaker confidence in Value-Based Care and the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) model has, so far, prevailed despite only small overall savings. There is still enduring belief that ACOs can rationalize health care and produce affordability by transformative strategies. But here’s where wishes and reality conflict: ACOs have, until now, lacked the data and tools to […]
ACOs Need a Strategic Map for Cost Control
For ACOs to remain relevant and viable under risk payment models, they must step up now to generate more cost savings for Medicare patient care. Medicare’s budget cuts are once again under consideration as political pressure mounts to lower governmental spending. CMS is expanding risk through Medicare value-based payment models, such as the new ACO […]
3 Ways Your ACO Can Convert APP Reporting Data into Higher Savings
Controlling costs is a key Value-Based Care goal, a fact well-known to ACOs that share savings with CMS. Even as individual ACOs have generated tens of millions of dollars in savings, however, MSSP ACOs as a whole have only been able to reduce their Total Cost of Care (TCOC) by a fraction. That is a […]
These Five Trends Are Steering Your Future Path to Value-Based Care
Buckle your seat belt. Health care is changing at warp speed. The Value-Based Care movement and leaps in technology and Artificial Intelligence are rapidly generating advances that will transform the health care environment. These factors will redefine health care providers and services, and how consumers access them. How you respond strategically will determine your survival […]