A recent research report shows that Medicare ACOs are facing difficulty to control and manage patient care because most beneficiaries have unrestricted choice over choosing healthcare providers. Much of the specialty care received was provided outside the patients' assigned ACO. The potential challenges in outpatient care are: the proportion of patients assigned to an ACO in 1 year who remained assigned the next year

• The proportion of office visits outside a patient's contracting organization

• The proportion of Medicare outpatient spending billed by a contracting organization that is devoted to assigned patients.

For more details please visit Mark Crane’s article in this link: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/823951

The goal of Accountable Care Act is to lower costs and improve outcomes through the creation of Medicare Accountable Care Organization but deep fragmentation in the health system is preventing to reach these goals. To know about this research, please follow this link: http://www.californiahealthline.org/articles/2014/4/23/study-fragmented-health-care-system-could-hamper-medicare-acos

Orange health solutions had acquired MZI healthcare. Great point partners, a private equity firm based in Greenwich, has helped in this merger. Orange health mainly serves hospitals and healthcare organizations to establish ACOs and value based care models, whereas MZI supports the healthcare providers with data analytics, predictive modelling, medical care management and health benefit management technologies. This merger will provide an integrated, one-stop solution that allows providers to solve their technology and service needs. For more please visit: http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/accountable-care-organizations/private-equity-firm-invests-in-aco-company-s-data-analytics-merger.html

The American Hospital Association (AHA) is lobbying CMS to modify the shared savings rule. According to AHA, the current rules are bringing too much financial risk to the providers without offering them enough financial rewards. A recent report suggests that out of 114 providers in Medicare Shared Savings Program, only 29 were able to realize the savings. AHA has recommended that CMS should extend ACO engagement period from 3 year to 6 year. As per Linda E. Fishman, an AHA senior vice president of public policy analysis and development, the only way CMS can encourage ACO participation is by modifying shared savings program. For more details please visit Ron Shinkman's article link: http://www.fiercehealthfinance.com/story/hospitals-want-cms-ease-aco-rules/2014-04-21

This article is released by Southampton ACO. It tells us in details about the benefits of joining an ACO. For more details please visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/05/prweb11811576.htm  

Advocate Healthcare had signed Medicare's first Shared Savings Program contract in 2012. The purpose of the contract was to test the ACO model, which offers financial incentives to hospitals and doctors for meeting cost and quality targets. Based on its initial success, Advocate is preparing to expand its ACO and officials believe it is worth of new investments. However, the success achieved through operating Medicare ACO model was not a cakewalk, but rather the success is achieved through failure, experimentation, and adaptation. Read more at: http://www.healthitoutcomes.com/doc/health-care-system-experiences-encouraging-aco-results-0001

Electronic Health Records are critical to succeed in healthcare service, but they are not enough.From a healthcare provider’s perspective, after spending a lot of money and time on EHR, reluctance to evaluate other solutions for population health management or “accountable care” can be understood. So, healthcare providers are choosing to wait for their EHR to evolve in order to address new demands associated with taking on and managing risk. But according to industry analysts this can be a long wait as wide range of functions are going far beyond what EHRs were built to do. Here analytics tools and solutions come to the rescue. Performing analytics using clinical and claims data, organizations can gain deep insight into patients, population, and performance, predict outcomes and rapidly identify the actions needed for improvement. This insight can be gained through a wide range of analytics solutions that deliver retrospective views of activity, ongoing surveillance of current activity, predictive modelling of future activity, as well as root-cause analysis.

To read more, visit the following link:

http://ehrintelligence.com/2014/04/09/why-moving-beyond-the-ehr-is-needed-for-population-health/

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced the last date for the third round of new applications for 2015 Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). The following five key decisions will help organizations before joining the MSSP program. They are:

•        Estimate the number of Medicare beneficiaries for whom the prospective ACO(Accountable Care Organizations) wants to be accountable.

•        Determine an appropriate contracting vehicle through which to operate the ACO.

•        Consider the types of health care professionals and facilities the prospective ACO should target as participants.   

•         Set expectations for prospective ACO participants in advance.

•        Gather the appropriate staff to address particular aspects of the MSSP Application early and set milestones in advance of submission deadlines where possible.

To read more about this aspect, please visit Stephanie D. Willis’s (Associate of Mintz Levin) article link as given below: http://www.natlawreview.com/article/five-key-decisions-acos-accountable-care-organization-looking-to-participate-2015-ms