Login

Forgot password?
Sign up today and your first download is free.
REGISTER

Spotlight on ACOs

April 26, 2019 | Daily News

Accountable care organizations (ACOs) and plans have expressed concern about model overlap after the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) announced two new voluntary primary care models on Monday, prompting the National Association of Accountable Care Organizations (NAACOS) to say it will push CMS to put into writing which models ACOs can participate in even as CMS clarified for Inside Health Policy how model participation will work.

April 25, 2019 | Daily News

CMS Administrator Seema Verma said stakeholders can expect more Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) models to be mandatory and for all upcoming payment models to include resources for state Medicaid adoption as she teased new rural health models and a long-awaited radiation oncology model in a speech to the National Association of Accountable Care Organizations (NAACOS) on Thursday (April 25).

April 25, 2019 | Daily News

Plans and provider advocates are optimistic about new models for primary care introduced Monday (April 22) by HHS, but questions remain about who might be able to participate, how benchmarks might be set, and what services the models might include.

April 22, 2019 | Daily News

HHS on Monday (April 22) announced new models for primary care -- Primary Care First and Direct Contracting -- that are designed to encourage primary care providers to take on more financial risk for the outcomes of their patients and are projected to encompass a quarter of all fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries.

April 12, 2019 | Daily News

CMS will start accepting on June 11 perspective notices from accountable care organizations that intend to join the revamped program in 2020, and the application window runs from July 1 through noon on July 29.

April 11, 2019 | Daily News

The National Association of Accountable Care Organizations (NAACOS) recently sent a letter to CMS asking the agency to make a tobacco-use quality measure, which was changed by agency, into a pay-for-reporting measure rather than a pay-for-performance one since NAACOS said CMS didn’t adequately communicate changes and ACO performance scores have suffered.

February 06, 2019 | Daily News

CMS Administrator Seema Verma said the agency plans to open up the financial alignment demonstration for those dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid to new states, and shortly afterwards duals center chief Tim Englehardt said the results are increasingly positive for those states currently participating.

February 04, 2019 | Daily News

CMS will again ask stakeholders for feedback on how to reduce regulatory burden, according to CMS Administrator Seema Verma, even as work on two separate CMS burden-reduction rules continues.

January 29, 2019 | Daily News

CMS Administrator Seema Verma on Tuesday (Jan. 29) previewed new demonstrations the agency is working on, including rural telehealth and multi-payer demonstrations, and she said the agency has spent the last year developing a way to increase provider participation in value-based care.

January 24, 2019 | Daily News

Piggybacking on providers’ requests, a bipartisan group of four House lawmakers is pressing CMS to delay the Feb. 19 deadline for applications to participate in the revamped accountable care organization program that kicks offs in July.

January 22, 2019 | Daily News

Accountable care organizations, hospitals, doctors and others are asking CMS to push back the Feb. 19 deadline for applications to participate in the revamped Medicare Shared Savings program, with 12 stakeholder groups asking CMS to move the deadline to March 29 and AMGA urging CMS to push it back further to April 19.

January 22, 2019 | Daily News

An analysis from the National Association of Accountable Care Organizations says CMS’ changes to the threshold for differentiating high-revenue and low-revenue ACOs is estimated to keep more physician-affiliated ACOs and those affiliated with Federally Qualified Health Centers from having to take on risk at a faster rate under the new Medicare Shared Savings program rules, but NAACOS says concerns remain that the system could keep ACOs from integrating specialty care.

January 10, 2019 | Daily News

The National Association of Accountable Care Organizations says CMS should give ACOs more time to apply to the revamped ACO program after the agency set a Feb. 19 deadline.

December 21, 2018 | Daily News

CMS on Friday (Dec. 21) finalized its overhaul of the Medicare Shared Savings Program by shortening the amount of time that accountable care organizations can participate in an upside-only model and reducing the shared-savings rate for ACOs that are not taking on financial risk.

December 17, 2018 | Daily News

CMS on Sunday (Dec. 16) sent an email to stakeholders clarifying that the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation’s work will continue unchanged while Texas v. Azar continues moving through the courts, and the demonstrations run through the Affordable Care Act-created center will keep going as well.

November 16, 2018 | Daily News

The White House budget office on Tuesday (Nov. 13) began reviewing HHS’ request for feedback on ways to revamp the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act to boost efforts to coordinate care.

November 14, 2018 | Daily News

Radiation oncologists are concerned about the possibility of mandatory participation in a radiation oncology demonstration after HHS Secretary Alex Azar indicated such a model was on the way.

November 08, 2018 | Daily News

HHS Secretary Alex Azar on Thursday (Nov. 8) said CMS plans to both bring back the mandatory bundled-pay models the agency canceled last year and look at new models, including for radiation oncology.

November 08, 2018 | Daily News

CMS says about 93 percent of eligible providers in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System received a bonus for their 2017 performance and the vast majority avoided a pay cut -- though CMS Administrator Seema Verma says in a blog post that she expects performance in the program will change as the thresholds are harder to meet.

October 26, 2018 | Daily News

A bipartisan group of nine House lawmakers is asking CMS to reconsider its proposals to cut the savings Medicare accountable care organizations can earn without taking on risk and shorten the length of time before ACOs must share savings and losses with the agency.

Pages