Supercharge Your ACO ROJI Health Intelligence Terry Hush
ACOsFuture of Health CareRiskValue-Based Health Care
April 20, 2023

Supercharge Your ACO to Compete Under Risk

Never has it been more important for ACOs to amp up Value with significantly higher cost savings and outcomes performance. More payment models are risk-based, changing economics for providers. Corporate health care and equity-backed practices are nabbing ACO physicians, making it hard for ACOs to sustain and grow. The next two years may be the last grace period for ACOs to show that provider-directed organizations can produce Value, before Medicare Advantage health plans—now chosen by half of beneficiaries—becomes the predominant model. That's why our spring 2023 eBook, Supercharge Your ACO: 6 Key Strategies for Top Value, is your essential guide…
Read More
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…
Read More
Smart Guide for APM Success, Terry Hush, Roji Health Intelligence
Alternative Payment Models (APM)Future of Health CareRiskValue-Based Health Care
August 11, 2022

Your Smart Guide for APM Success

In the next several years, one of two things will happen: Either traditional health care providers will make the largest, make-or-break transformation of health care system economics and delivery of care in U.S. history, or the legacy health care system as we know it will not survive, but will be absorbed into the new corporate business of health care. Successful APM adoption will make the difference. What is driving this transformation? Three forces are responsible: First, the urgent cost crisis in health care demands that providers become more accountable for costs and better patient care, and adopt value-based payment models…
Read More
ACOsAlternative Payment Models (APM)Future of Health CareRiskValue-Based Health Care
January 6, 2022

Five Predictions for the Fate of Value-Based Health Care in 2022

Only a few days into 2022, it seems obvious that many predicted “trends to watch” floated in late 2021 won’t, in fact, be what will matter most in this critical year for health care. Not that these issues aren’t important, but they are not new (if you’ve been paying attention and, hopefully, planning your strategies). The major predictions are underwhelming: Telemedicine and other types of virtual care will continue to advance. Digitization of health care for consumers will disrupt traditional channels of information and engagement. There will be more collaborations and blurred lines between payers and providers, and even more…
Read More
ACOsFuture of Health CareRiskValue-Based Health Care
November 17, 2021

Supercharge Your Way to Value-Based Care

Whether you are an ACO, a health system considering value-based payment, or a medical group weighing your options for Value-Based Care, Roji’s new eBook, Supercharge your ACO for Top Value, has the strategies you need to reduce the cost of care and get clinician backing for innovation. The health care market’s reconfigured landscape puts ACOs—and health care organizations still in a Fee-for-Service contracting circuit—in danger of losing their ability to capture the savings from more effective and efficient health care driven by data, strong physician buy-in, and direct-to-consumer marketing. Medicare Advantage and equity-backed medical groups are competing with traditional providers…
Read More
ACOsEpisodes of CareRiskSpecialty ServicesValue-Based Health Care
October 6, 2021

New ACO Playbook: Seven Keys to Expanding ACO Savings—and Market Share

At the beginning of this series, we laid out a basic tenet: As shared savings plan ACOs, you need to do as well or better at lowering costs than competing value-based payment models. Otherwise, your resources and support will dwindle in favor of more promising avenues to control Medicare spending, and competition will stifle your growth. We’ve examined the competition and what they offer physicians to succeed in Risk and to attract patients. The bar is high. Medicare Advantage Plans, equity-backed practices, and Management-model ACOs like Aledade have changed the playing field for physician participation and growth. ACOs Have Lost…
Read More
ACOsFuture of Health CareRiskValue-Based Health Care
August 19, 2021

New ACO Playbook: Three Ultimate ACO Strategies to Keep Physician Practices Onboard

ACOs have zealously protected their favored status under Medicare Value-Based payment models, ensuring enough time for organizations to feel comfortable with financial risk and make investments in infrastructure. But if your own ACO is losing physicians to new equity-financed networks or to hospitals consolidating practices, more time does not help you. Primary care physicians are being picked off by your competition, and their patients go with them. Private equity firms and venture capital-funded groups have gained significant ground in acquiring physician practices, with mergers and acquisitions hitting record highs in 2019 and 2020, and accelerating in 2021. Equity firms and…
Read More
Data-sufficiency-for-acos
ACOsAdvanced Alternative Payment ModelsAPM Performance PathwayRiskValue-Based Health Care
July 14, 2021

ACOs: Scale Up Data to Achieve APM Success

Last updated July 27, 2022 More data is required for ACOs, now that Alternative Payment Models have moved to high gear. In this article we’ll take the mystery out of how to realistically gauge your data needs and scale up data, so that your ACO can be successful. We'll show you how to identify the links between what you want to accomplish as an ACO or medical group in value-based payment models and those data requirements, and help you target your data efforts.  Data will drive your analytics, and analytics will fuel your interventions to produce better outcomes and cost…
Read More
ACOsAPM Performance PathwayMerit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)RiskValue-Based Health Care
May 24, 2021

New ACO Playbook: To Show Standout Performance, ACOs Must Rethink Quality

The health care media are full of articles asserting that ACOs have proven their mettle in delivering health care of highest quality. Citing ACO quality reporting results, CMS and advocates point to the majority of ACOs passing CMS quality standards, and that ACOs are improving their results on quality measures over time. The vast majority of ACOs meet quality measures, with 92 percent passing the qualification for shared savings in 2019. But is quality performance a distinguishing feature that ACOs can use competitively—and sustain the payment model’s long-term prospects? To earn permanency and competitive advantage, ACOs must show that the…
Read More
ACOsEpisodes of CareFuture of Health CareRiskValue-Based Health Care
April 29, 2021

New ACO Playbook: Can Coordination of Care Save Enough Money to Save ACOs?

Central to the controversy about ACOs’ potential for Value-Based Care is whether they actually save enough money and reduce costs fast enough. Researchers and advocates have produced various independent studies of ACO savings, the most generous estimating $1.8 billion in cumulative savings over the first three years of the program, almost double CMS estimates. Many others, however, dismiss the small proportion of savings—at a few percentage points—relative to total Medicare spending. The previous CMS administration was clearly dubious about the shared savings model. It favored payment models that put providers at financial risk to increase cost reduction incentives, even though…
Read More