ACOsAlternative Payment Models (APM)Future of Health CareHealth EquityValue-Based Health Care
April 5, 2023

Jumpstart ACO Health Equity with Data-Based Collaborative Initiatives

Ever since the first pandemic data revealed the enormous cost of health inequities, the pressing question of how to rectify unfair access to quality health care has become a major policy discussion. Now the debate is turning to action, as the first Value-based Payment Model to address health equity comes online. ACO REACH is Medicare's response to blending several key values in its most advanced payment model to date. In addition to traditional ACO quality and cost values, ACO REACH also includes population-based payments (including global payments), rather than Fee-for-Service, and promotes health equity as a central goal. If your…
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ACOsData Best PracticesRiskValue-Based Health Care
March 30, 2023

Promote ACO Success Under Value-Based Payment with These 5 Data Sources

ACOs have used "old school" data sources for many years to focus coordination of care activities. Perhaps your ACO has done the same, using reports such as admissions and ER discharges, post-acute admissions, visit history and missing labs to target patients for outreach. Similarly, your ACO might use HCCs to identify patients with higher risk factors for population health. Basic, easily found data like these sources provided a means for ACOs to launch valuable efforts in population health, when comprehensive claims and EHR data were not easily available. But as the pendulum swings toward financial Risk, your ACO needs to…
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ACOsAPP ReportingQuality Payment ProgramValue-Based Health Care
March 2, 2023

Amplify Your APP Payoff: Boost Quality and Costs with 3 Essential Data Types

Many ACOs are in the throes of planning to adopt APP Reporting. It’s a massive undertaking that can be costly, depending on your ACO's configuration of practices. If your ACO is scrambling to sort this out, you’re not alone in your abrupt initiation into the world of EHR data. Welcome to the joy ride. In our last post, we explained how to maximize the value of data aggregated for quality, as produced by either the HL7 and flat file method, or the QRDA method. Here we break down the data you need to achieve better quality in terms of patient…
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Roji Health Intelligence ACO Data APP Reporting
ACOsAPP ReportingValue-Based Health Care
February 2, 2023

Three Lies and a Truth About ACO Data for APP Reporting

If you're an ACO worried about APP Reporting, we get it. Your concerns about the feasibility and costs of aggregating data from multiple systems are completely valid. But don't let data complexity hoodwink you into a simplistic solution that will cost you more than the data is worth. Your solution to data aggregation needs to focus on "value," which means that your data aggregation should also garner the most return for your investment. If you are a one-EHR type of ACO, your data aggregation is relatively straightforward, and the cost will be reasonable. But you’re facing very different challenges if…
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ACO ReportingAPP ReportingCMS RulesValue-Based Health Care
January 5, 2023

Prepare Your ACO for APP Reporting with Our Ultimate Guide

No way out. That's the message of the CMS 2023 Final Payment Rule regarding APP quality reporting for ACOs. ACOs hoping for a reprieve to avoid all-patient quality reporting did not get it. APP Reporting will go forward by 2025, and ACOs must aggregate the patient data from provider systems to enable it. CMS has made it clear that accountable health care requires all-patient data to support both quality and equity in patient health care. You will need to act quickly. It takes experience, technology, and time to create the framework for a multi-practice database. You will need to become…
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ACOsCMS RulesCorporate Health CareEpisodes of CareFuture of Health CareValue-Based Health Care
December 13, 2022

5 Key Health Care Trends to Watch for in 2023

After an intense few years in health care, will 2023 deliver more punches? While 2022 was dubbed a COVID “recovery” year, as patient volume rebounded, health care staffing shortages festered. Burnout prompted physicians to retire, sell practices to corporate owners, or leave traditional health care for other employment. Simply put, 2022 was short on recovery and stability. Even still, 2022 fostered important new trends and discoveries. Despite inflation and recession fears, corporate health care continued its growth undaunted, with new startups and equity-backed practice expansion. Value-Based Care spurred corporate territorial reach into legacy health care preserves. Optum, ACO enablers like…
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Alternative Payment Models (APM)APM Performance PathwayEpisodes of CareValue-Based Health Care
October 31, 2022

Launch Time! Five Intervention Strategies to Fuel Your APM Liftoff

If you've followed the Smart Guide articles so far, your APM is ready for take-off. You’ve developed a data-sufficient technology infrastructure with both provider and claims data, carefully constructed your clinical network and engaged your clinicians, and implemented strategies for payers and consumers. Your APM may be operating already, with data ready to use. Now you are at the crossroads, and your choice will determine whether your APM will really transform outcomes for your patients and achieve maximum Value, or whether your APM will be average. That choice pivots on interventions. Only through specific interventions with clinicians and patients can…
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Alternative Payment Models (APM)APM Performance PathwayConsumers & PatientsFuture of Health CareValue-Based Health Care
October 26, 2022

Need to Fire Up Your APM’s Consumer Strategies? Start Here

You've read it and you've experienced it: consumer frustration with an impersonal health care bureaucracy offering few conveniences, difficult navigation, high cost, and lack of transparency. Even as some organizations try to move forward with consumer-focused strategies, these are often still fledgling efforts with little overarching structure that fail to attract consumer attention. Beyond implementing an EMR patient portal, traditional providers have been slow to develop the consumer focus necessary to generate trust and loyalty. Meanwhile, consumers are welcoming an abundance of health apps and other resources that enable them to manage their health and, if sickness strikes, get quick…
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Alternative Payment Models (APM)APM Performance PathwayEpisodes of CareMedical Decision-MakingValue-Based Health Care
October 19, 2022

3 Ways to Engage Physicians to Lead Transformation in Your APM

Doctors leaving medicine spells trouble for health care. And there’s real reason for concern. A few weeks ago, the Mayo Clinic released its most recent study on physician burnout, revealing the highest rate in the survey’s 10-year history. Sixty-three percent of responding physicians reported one or more characteristics of burnout, with many noting depersonalization, an inability to maintain a work-life balance, and career dissatisfaction. The Mayo story was significant enough to be picked up by The New York Times. This worrisome trend creates a real quandary for Value-Based Care and adoption of Alternative Payment Models (APMs), since their success or…
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ACOsAlternative Payment Models (APM)Future of Health CareValue-Based Health Care
October 5, 2022

Eight Key Strategies for APM Contracting Right Now

Are you considering entering into APM contracts with private payers? Bravo! Teaming with commercial health plans and employers is a strong opportunity for growing patients through APM arrangements. Expanding your APM agreements into all payment types will be essential to back the incentives you build into your workforce for performance-based pay. But those contracts must align with your APM strategies and support your goals. Our focus here is on APM contracts with health plans. Health plans may be eager to adopt these arrangements with you, if their analytics of your organization demonstrate good outcomes and reasonable costs. Population-based payments, which…
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