Accountable Care Organization, Healthcare Big Data, Healthcare Portal, and ACO Implementation Resources
FEATURED ARTICLES: ACO
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Top 3 Health IT Trends To Be Thankful For
It has been an interesting few years in the healthcare IT (HIT) industry and no doubt it will continue to be so moving forward. Not too long ago the Federal stimulus package went into effect to support Meaningful Use (MU) and most everyone was supportive of the goals and cautiously optimistic of the goals. Optimism was high in part because new funding was available, but also because there was a realization that the technology had finally reached a sustainable level. But as these early stages of Meaningful Use have been executed and providers move from getting funding to a state of “now what?”, pessimism has started to creep in. Rollouts like Healthcare.gov do not help this negative thinking. By Greg Chittim, Senior Director of Strategic Marketing, Arcadia Solutions
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Charting A Course For Patient Safety3/12/2014
Ten percent of diagnoses are wrong, delayed, or missed. What can be done to correct this problem and save the 40,000 or more lives that are lost each year as a result? By Melissa Cole, BSN, MSW, FACHE
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Portals And Improved Patient Outcomes1/13/2014
Study finds an increase in medication adherence for patients using online portals By Katie Wike, contributing writer
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2015 Health IT Change Agents9/29/2015
Our inaugural class of Health IT Change Agents set a high bar, but this year’s class can more than hold its own when it comes to driving positive change and advancing health IT.
CASE STUDIES & WHITE PAPERS
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IT Infrastructure: A Foundation For Accountable Care Organizations8/11/2011The advent of healthcare reform will require a health information technology infrastructure that integrates all the “moving parts” of an ACO, including hospitals, physicians, labs, outpatient centers, claims and analytics.
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Managing Healthcare Data Within The Ecosystem While Reducing IT Costs And Complexities6/27/2012
At the 2011 conference, EMC's team of healthcare solution specialists spoke with several vendors and conferees and asked one question: "What is the best way to reduce costs and complexity in a healthcare IT infrastructure?" The overwhelming answer was to enable a cloud environment for patient data and to find a solution for managing so-called "big data."
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An Israeli Model For Coordinated Care4/5/2012This white paper illustrates how Maccabi Healthcare Services, the second largest health maintenance organization in Israel, aligned the proper incentives, processes, and IT assets to deliver coordinated care to more than 1.9 million members.
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5 Steps To Building An Effective Care Management Program7/1/2016
How to Create, Implement, and Operate a Successful Program.
FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK
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The Problem With Consumerism In Healthcare
Many industry leaders championed a free market approach to healthcare during the 12th Annual World Health Care Congress last week. Here are a few key reasons why I don’t think this model is “the fix” our industry so desperately needs.
ABOUT ACCOUNTABLE CARE ORGANIZATIONS (ACO)
An Accountable Care Organization (ACO) utilizes a payment and care delivery system that bases payments to providers on quality metrics and seeks to reduce the total cost of care for a certain population of patients. ACOs use a range of payment models and consist of groups of coordinated healthcare providers that provide care to groups of patients. ACOs are accountable to a third-party payer and the group of patients for the appropriateness, quality, and efficiency of the health services they provide.
In 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) set forth initial guidelines for ACOs to be created under the Medicare Shared Savings Program. These guidelines contained all necessary steps required for a physician, health care provider, or hospital to voluntarily participate in ACOs.
The quality measures used to evaluate an ACO's performance as defined by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) fall into five domains. These domains are patient/caregiver experience, care coordination, patient safety, preventative health, and at-risk population/frail elderly health.
The three stakeholders in an ACO are the providers, payers, and patients. Providers are a network of hospitals, physicians, and other healthcare professionals. The primary payer is the federal government, Medicare, but also includes other payers such as private insurances or employee-purchased insurance. The patient population of an ACO will primarily consist of Medicare beneficiaries, but in larger ACOs can also include those who are homeless and uninsured.
FEATURED NEWS
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ACOs Face Interoperability Barriers2/8/2016
According to a new report, a lack of out-of-network interoperability is the biggest obstacle facing ACOs today. By Katie Wike, contributing writer
ACO NEWS ARTICLES
- Upcoming Webinar: Data-Driven Care: The Key To Accountable Care Delivery From A Physician Group Perspective
- WEDI Releases Guide On HIPAA Transactions Requiring ICD-10 Codes
- Automated Quality Reporting Through EHRs Can Result In Significant Efficiencies And Care Improvements
- CMS Releases Updated Data On EHR Adoption
- West Florida ACO Chooses Sandlot Solutions As Partner In Patient Health Information Management