With TEAM’s focus on improving surgical recoveries and costs in major hospital-based surgeries, it’s easy to miss the importance of primary care physicians. But their role is essential for meeting TEAM’s objective to improve patient recovery and lower costs in the five major types of surgery covered by TEAM. And perhaps not in the way […]
For TEAM Success, Collaboration Agreements Must Be a Win-Win for Specialists and Hospitals
The new Transforming Episode Accountability Model (TEAM) targets the highest cost or volume surgeries in the Medicare program. While hospitals bear the financial risk, CMS has created a vehicle to align interests with other providers through Collaboration Agreements that can include financial incentives. How those are structured will be key to the successful alignment—or fracture—of […]
The 2026 CMS PFS Final Rule: The 5 Ways CMS Aims to Control Total Cost of Care
The CMS PFS Final Rule is out . . . early? If you’re wondering how, in the midst of the Shutdown, a 2,375-page Rule could be released, the answer is simple: most of the proposals from this summer were finalized as is. There are always exceptions, but the big takeaway is that this Rule solidifies […]
Three Strategies for ACOs to Optimize Specialty Care through TEAM
Both the greatest strength and weakness of the ACO shared savings (MSSP) model is its focus on primary care, particularly chronic disease. ACOs have put patients with diabetes, hypertension, and other conditions usually handled through primary care physicians at the center of care coordination, population health, and care management. But as CMS Value-Based Care’s central […]
CMS Commits to Control Total Cost of Care: 6 Volleys in the 2026 CMS PFS Proposed Rule
Summer is here, and the heat is on: barbeques, beaches, and the 2026 CMS Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule. Throughout 1,803 pages, CMS is going after the total cost of care in the MIPS and APM tracks of the Quality Payment Program (QPP). These proposed updates and the creation of a surprise new (and mandatory!) […]
Multi-Payer VBC Strategy Is Essential for Cost Control, but Providers Must Get a Fair Deal
To meet its goals of controlling costs and improving patient care, Value-Based Care requires a near-universal, multi-payer strategy.
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 […]
The 2025 CMS PFS Final Rule: The Five-Pronged Strategy Towards Comprehensive Accountable Care
The 2025 CMS PFS Rule landed with a bang, and it’s not just the weight of the 3,088 pages. We’re one year closer to 2030, the year that CMS intends to have all Traditional Medicare patients in a relationship with a clinician who is accountable for total cost of care. The push to the finish […]
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 […]