No matter how we measure disparity in health care for women in the U.S, African American women stand out. Across the board, they have higher risk factors for disease and poorer outcomes, including much higher mortality for many conditions. African American women contract cardiac disease and cancer at a younger age and, often, in worse […]
Should Value-Based Health Care Help Improve Life Expectancy?
As Americans in a highly developed and prosperous economy, we have ascribed a value to our highly sophisticated, expensive health care system—that it should enable us to achieve better health. If we didn’t believe in the value of our health care system, we would not support health coverage, most people would not visit health care […]
Can ACO Population Health Solve Patient Engagement?
Personal attitudes inform our strategies for improving patient health. As ACOs move forward in Value-Based Health Care, attitudes about patients and providers set the stage for collaboration or conflict. And with ACOs taking on financial risk for patients, those attitudes and strategies can make the difference between success and failure. As we discussed in a […]
How to Involve Physicians Effectively in ACO Population Health
In a recent post, we addressed the many types of population health initiatives and some guidelines for creating the most benefit. Now let’s take a closer look at one of those guidelines: integrating population health into regular or routine care of patients—specifically, with greater involvement and communication by the patients’ physicians. ACOs and their participating […]
ACO Population Health Best Practices: More Respect for Physicians and Patients
How important is it to agree on principles and best practices for population health? More important than most providers believe, and here’s why: Population health can be a powerful engine for improving patient outcomes and cost performance in Value-Based Health Care. Failure to create a standard of population health practices means that every ACO or […]
Personalized Medicine v Population Health: Opposites or Complements?
If personalized medical care is the goal, how does that fit with the concept of “population health,” the darling of the health care industry’s drive toward better results and lower costs? Are these two concepts really at odds, or do they work in tandem? This is not a rhetorical question; in the current environment of […]
Proposed MACRA Rules: Your APM Strategy for Risk Readiness
If you chose not to participate in Medicare ACOs or Bundled Payments in recent years, CMS is planning to change your mind. Proposed MACRA Rules reveal a complex carrot-and-stick approach to inducing providers into risk models. Make no mistake: it’s just a matter of when, not if, you participate in one of the Alternative Payment […]
ACOs and the Referral Revolution Part 2: How to Align Objectives and Referral Practices
There’s no getting around it. Disruption in referrals under new Value-Based Health Care programs will upset both primary care and specialty practices under any change scenario. Physicians with historical relationships will undoubtedly resent an edict to redirect referrals, if they don’t understand or believe comparative data on cost and quality. On the other side of […]
How to Get Paid for Your Population Health Program: Part 2
If you’ve written off population health initiatives as too expensive, think again. Pay for Performance means just what it says: you need to demonstrate better outcomes than your peers if you expect to reap benefits from Medicare. And, if you fall behind, you’ll risk ACO losses or Value-Based Payment Modifier (VBPM) penalties. As we discussed […]
How to Get Paid for Your Population Health Program: Part 1
How can you succeed in Pay for Performance if you can’t risk revenues on a program that may not produce results? Especially if your competitors have made the investment and can prove better outcomes, raising the bar for everyone? It’s not enough simply to tighten existing procedures or to focus on maintaining high standards To […]