In comments submitted to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the nation’s leading data scientists in healthcare urged federal officials to use new payment policies to reassess how providers are required to use informatics tools, and rethink how quality is measured in a digital world. Officials from the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) said new and novel ways to deliver care will rely on dynamic uses of information technology (IT) and other informatics tools, so
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ACO | Accountable Care Organization | Policy, News, Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
New Jersey ACO Model Yields Improvements in Quality of Subacute Patient Care
A collaboration of hospitals, doctors and skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) has resulted in improvements in the quality of subacute patient care, and reductions in costs, length of stay and hospital readmissions. This marks major progress in meeting and exceeding standards of patient care for Medicare beneficiaries in New Jersey, a state that has traditionally ranked low for key performance measures among SNFs. The Atlantic Accountable Care Organization (AACO) and Optimus
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athenahealth Updates Its Patient-Centered Medical Home Accelerator Program
athenahealth a provider of cloud-based EHR services and mobile applications for medical groups and health systems has announced updates to its Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Accelerator Program. Awarded an outstanding 35.25 automatic credits and 45.5 practice support points by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), athenahealth ® streamlines providers' pathway towards formal NCQA PCMH Recognition. Practices using athenahealth's EHR, athenaClinicals ®, and patient
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Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois to Launch New Value-based Care Model
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois (BCBSIL) has signed an agreement to launch an innovative new value-based care model with DuPage Medical Group (DMG), the largest independent physician practice in the Chicago area, with more than 425 doctors. Traditionally in a fee-for-service delivery model, reimbursement is based on specific services provided to patients; rewarding providers for the volume of services they provide. In value-based care, payment to providers is associated with meeting
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Florida’s PremierMD ACO Selects eClinicalWorks for Population Health Management
Florida’s PremierMD ACO LLC (Premier), an ACO participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program, has chosen the eClinicalWorks CCMR population health platform to advance its ACO objectives, coordinate care across the continuum as well as evaluate population health and quality improvement activities. eClinicalWorks will also be the preferred EHR solution for the organization. Premier participates in the Medicare Shared Savings Program, which has been created by the Centers for Medicare
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5 Cultural Pitfalls To Avoid In Health System Integration
Editor's Note: This spotlight article was recently included in PwC's Q1 2015 US health services deals insights report. These days it seems every health system is in the middle of a transformation — be it buying, selling or trying to integrate the assets it has amassed over time. Being in the business of transformation, this means we find ourselves invariably and repeatedly answering the question, "What are the big stumbling blocks to avoid?" Without fail, our answer will include some
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HHS Announces $101M in ACA Funding to 164 Community Health Centers
HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell announced today approximately $101 million in Affordable Care Act funding to 164 new health center sites across 33 states and two U.S. Territories for the delivery of comprehensive primary health care services in communities that need them most. These new health centers are projected to increase access to health care services for nearly 650,000 patients. Investment Details This investment announced today will add to the more than 550 new health center sites
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12 Things You Need to Know About Value-Based Reimbursement
Public and private payers, including Medicare and some of the nation’s biggest health insurers, plan to hasten the migration of the healthcare reimbursement system from pay-for-volume to pay-for-value. The acceleration in the pace of change from fee for service to risk-based reimbursement is likely to reshape the healthcare business over the next three to five years. While all healthcare stakeholders will be affected, the pioneers of this approach to healthcare financing will be large,
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UCSF, John Muir Health Partner to Form ACO Network
UCSF Medical Center and John Muir Health has invested in a collaborative effort, called the Bay Area ACO Network, to form a regional health care network. The goal is to provide the right care at the right time and in the most appropriate setting, whether that is the primary care physician’s office, an outpatient center or a hospital. The two health systems also have formed a new development company that will enable them to collaborate on building new medical facilities, increase the number of
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CMS Unveils Next Generation ACO Model
On Tuesday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Innovation Center (CMS Innovation Center) launched the Next Generation Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Model of payment and care delivery initiative. The next Generation ACO Model will offer a new opportunities in accountable care designed to set predictable financial targets, enables providers and beneficiaries greater opportunities to coordinate care, and attain the highest quality standards of care. Initiative Details The
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