Recent updates and emerging best practices for ACOs in the Medicare Shared Savings Program
Going into the 12th year since it brought accountable care into the healthcare lexicon, the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) continues to evolve, with CMS making changes and participants fine-tuning best practices. Starting with 220 accountable care organizations (ACOs) in 2012-13, the MSSP grew to 561 in 2018. However, the number has been below 500…
2024 outlook: Hospitals can expect a steadier year financially, but key questions loom
Although the past year brought more stability for the not-for-profit hospital sector, analysts foresee 2024 as a pivotal period in determining the viability of individual organizations. Fitch Ratings continues to describe the sector’s outlook as “Deteriorating.” In a year-end report, the credit-rating agency said downgrades of hospitals and health systems in 2023 had outpaced upgrades…
Dennis Dahlen: It’s time to look at what’s working — and what isn’t — in reducing care costs
There’s a surprising phenomenon taking place in Medicare spending — and it points to the need to look deeper when it comes to healthcare cost containment. For years, Medicare was viewed as the nation’s “budget buster,” with spending spiraling so quickly that some budget experts predicted no amount of tax money could sustain it. And…
Key Senate committee takes a close look at healthcare waste and prices
The U.S. Senate is intent on finding ways to improve the value of healthcare, according to takeaways from a recent hearing of the Budget Committee. Although other committees and subcommittees in both chambers of Congress have held meaningful hearings about healthcare policy and costs this year, the Budget Committee’s attention to the matter is especially…
10 Keys to Restoring Trust in Healthcare
The issue of restoring consumer trust in the U.S. healthcare system encompasses a wide range of concerns. Factors in the perceived loss of trust include anxiety and confusion over costs, entrenched inequity, a glut of misinformation about vaccines and other treatments, and data and privacy breaches. To examine the problem and explore solutions, HFMA’s 16th…
Medicare’s hospital outpatient payment rate for 2024 improves marginally from the proposed rule
The final rule setting Medicare’s 2024 payment rates and policies for hospital outpatient services and ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) contained no major surprises and little to make hospitals optimistic about the government portion of their payer mix. Here are five of the most important payment and coverage takeaways from the rule, which totals 1,672 pages…
Dennis Dahlen: Are states losing patience with the pace of healthcare value transformation?
The pace of state-based regulation and oversight of healthcare providers is accelerating — and it could be an indication that patience is growing thin with federal, payer and provider efforts to improve healthcare value. Across the nation, we’re seeing a growing number of states adopt healthcare affordability boards. It’s a trend that started to pick…
Amid positive signs financially, hospitals continue to grapple with high costs in labor and other areas
The latest financial metrics for the hospital sector reflect a period of increasing stability but also sustained challenges. August financial data from more than 1,300 hospitals, as reported by Syntellis Performance Solutions, showed improvements in key metrics. The month-over-month increase in median operating margin was 3.5 percentage points, helping the year-to-date margin rise to 1.4%…
The best care starts with the patient
Rami Karjian and Pippa Shulman from Medically Home discuss why higher payment and lower length of stay isn't always the best benchmark.
Insights on population health management challenges through the eyes of C-suite leaders
Population health management is at a crossroads, and one key to ensuring its viability is to bolster stakeholder trust in the potential of value-based payment (VBP) models. That was a key takeaway from healthcare executives who took part in a September panel discussion at the 23rd annual Population Health Colloquium, hosted by the Jefferson College…