Roji Intel Blog

Theresa Hush 0
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Alternative Payment Models (APM)Future of Health CareValue-Based Health Care
May 18, 2022

Wanted: Better Script for Health System and Medical Group Transition to APMs

Health care has been suffering for a while—just ask any participant, including patients. You will hear about burnout, pressures to perform, changes in the market, pressures of new technology, fiefdoms, consumerism, and to top it off, the buildup of competition between traditional health care enterprises and new corporate health care businesses. Then there’s the pandemic, which may be sidelined publicly but continues to ravage health and the business of health care. Value-Based Care and its sidekick, Alternative Payment Models (APMs), continue to pressure health care finances. Providers, who have played cat-and-mouse with APMs for a while now, are beginning to…
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Theresa Hush 0
72
Consumers & PatientsFuture of Health CareValue-Based Health Care
January 24, 2022

Will Consumers Derail Your Value-Based Care Success?

Your health care organization may be on the tightrope of still coping with COVID-related illness and delivering essential patient care, amidst staffing and supply shortages. But in 2022, life is not poised to give health care a breather. Likewise, there is no slow-down to the expansion of Value-Based Care and payment models or development of further stages in 2022. This year, providers in traditional Medicare will rack up stiffer penalties if costs are higher than CMS algorithms calculate. More ACO providers will progress along the path to Risk, and more will participate in alternative payment models (APMs). This will be…
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Theresa Hush 0
24
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…
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Theresa Hush 0
1
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…
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Theresa Hush 0
2
ACOsRiskValue-Based Health Care
April 14, 2021

Why ACOs Need a New Playbook

A lot has happened in health care since 2012, when final rules permitted provider-organized ACOs to be the driving force of Value-Based Care under the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA). As we pass the ACA’s eleventh anniversary, a dwindling number of Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) ACOs are entering a new phase marked by higher expectations and more difficult economics. To succeed in this challenging environment, ACOs will need different tools going forward than first contemplated, because of competition, both from providers under new value-based payment models and from Medicare Advantage plans. They also face more skepticism. Although rule changes…
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Theresa Hush 0
2
ACOsDirect ContractingFuture of Health CarePrimary Care PracticesValue-Based Health Care
March 18, 2021

With Competing Payment Models on Hold, What’s the Future for ACOs?

When CMS first announced new primary care payment models in April 2019, ACOs understood that their future might be threatened by competition for both physicians and patients. If medical groups could independently contract with Medicare under these models, they would have the advantage of greater control over their physician network, referral arrangements, and clinical decisions. The Value-Based primary care models of Direct Contracting (DC) and Primary Care First (PCF) were presented as a strategy to fortify primary care and independent practitioners. By combining prospective payment, quality monitoring, and incentive pools for lowering admissions and total costs, providers could potentially reap…
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Theresa Hush 0
1
ACOsConsumers & PatientsFuture of Health CareNarrow NetworksValue-Based Health Care
October 30, 2019

Is Patient Lock-In the Next Step in Value-Based Care?

Hoping to safeguard survival under financial risk, health care providers are courting a contentious issue: how patients select primary providers. During the HMO heyday , health care risk economics depended on patient selection of primary providers as part of coverage selection that “locked” them into those PCPs and their referral networks. PCPs operated as gatekeepers to the rest of the health care system, authorizing services (or not) for specialists and other care. It’s well known that the HMO’s Primary Care gatekeeper model generated a backlash among private sector consumers. In fact, the gatekeeper was so unpopular with patients that it…
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Evelyn Herwitz 0
0
ACOsAlternative Payment Models (APM)Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)Primary Care PracticesValue-Based Health Care
October 23, 2019

Roji News Roundup: Fall 2019 Edition

In a range of recent industry publications, Roji Health Intelligence CEO Terry Hush shares her insights on the latest moves by CMS and health care trends: Are Value-Based Models Helping or Hindering Care Delivery for Primary Care Providers AJMC Managed Markets Network, October 10, 2019 This article by Jaime Rosenberg summarizes Terry’s presentation at the National Managed Care Physicians 2019 Fall Managed Care Forum in Las Vegas. Value-based models continue to enter the health care system, affecting a variety of fields, including primary care. And while success stories have been shared by payers and CMS touts these models as a…
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Theresa Hush 0
1
ACOsFuture of Health CarePrimary Care PracticesValue-Based Health Care
September 4, 2019

Will “Value” Help Consumers Choose?

In the emerging days of Value-Based Health Care (VBHC), “value” was defined by quality, cost, and experience of health care for patients—the “Triple Aim.” The movement’s initial defining goal: patients should be able to access high value health care services that improved outcomes, to get value for their dollars. Likewise, employers and other purchasers deserved similar value for their share of investment in health care benefit plans. Because incentives inherent in insurance and Fee-for-Service (FFS) payment systems reward volume over value, however, VBHC has also had a subagenda to make value pay for providers. But to reward better value instead,…
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Theresa Hush 0
3
ACOsFuture of Health CarePrimary Care PracticesValue-Based Health Care
August 28, 2019

How Should Primary Care-Centric Physician Practices Choose A Path to Risk?

It’s an urgent question for most practices: How should physicians participate in value-based reimbursement? Traditional Medicare is moving assertively to physician payment models that include capitation and ceilings on spending, with revenue risk tied to patient care costs. Without a doubt, primary care practices are bearing the brunt of risk-based reimbursement. With the exception of specialty-aimed Bundled Payments, most payment models are primary care-centric. Patient costs are grouped and then attributed to their primary care physicians—regardless of whether the services were provided by those physicians or by specialists and hospitals—and those PCPs are then rewarded or penalized under various risk…
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