CMS announces 106 new ACOs

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) just announced 106 new Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) in this press release today.  Since passage of the Affordable Care Act, more than 250 Accountable Care Organizations have been established. Do you know if your state has an ACO?

National ACO Congress

Learn the latest insights about implementing and operating accountable care organizations (ACO) at the National ACO Congress, Oct. 30–Nov. 1 in Los Angeles. Co-sponsored by the AMA, the conference will feature experts with hands-on experience, including keynote speaker Jay Crosson, MD, the AMA's vice president of professional satisfaction—care delivery and payment. Physicians can attend in person or online.

Learn about this event here.

Don't miss this webinar on ACOs and the future of health care

You won't want to miss this upcoming webinar on HCPLive about Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and the future of health care. Listen as David Harlow, author of the Health Blawg, speaks about ACOs and bundled payments.

The webinar will be held on:
Thursday, October 27, 1:00-2:00PM (ET).

For more details, you can go here.

In the future (starting tomorrow!) health care providers will have to do more with less. Total reimbursement by both public and private sector payors is dropping, and the metrics for success are changing. Instead of thinking about this as a zero-sum game, payors and providers are moving away from fee-for-service payment systems to bundled payment systems. The health reform law spells out one such program in detail -- the ACO, or shared savings, program -- and created the CMS Center for Innovation, and funded it with $25 billion. The Center for Innovation’s mandate is to run experiments on how to do more with less, and to scale up successful experiments quickly.

HIMSS Virtual Forum on ACOs

On Sept 13, HIMSS is holding a Virtual Forum to discuss issues related to Accountable Care Organizations. To learn more and to register for this event, click here.

HIMSS Virtual Forum: Achieving Quality and Efficiencies in Health IT: Perspectives from Accountable Care Organizations

Virtual Forum Agenda:

• 9AM - 10AM CT Education Session #1: There's No Place Like the Medical Home: Patient-Centered Medical Home IT Model as ACO Infrastructure Template
• 9AM - 10AM CT Education Session #2: Rewarding Good Behavior: The Impact of Incentives on Driving the ACO Paradigm Shift
• 10AM - 11AM CT Industry Solution Session #1: Thinking Broadly: Best Practices from 100 Accountable Care Readiness Assessments
• 11AM - Noon CT Talk to product experts in the Exhibitor Booths
• Noon - 12:30PM CT Break
• 12:30PM - 2:30PM CT Talk to product experts in the Exhibitor Booths
• 2:30PM - 3:30PM CT Education Session #3: Allies in Accountable Care: Partnering in Collaborative Care for Chronic-Disease Patients in Non-Hospital Settings
• 2:30PM - 3:30 PM CT Education Session #4: Recipe for a Successful ACO: Provide the Right Information at the Right Time in the Right Format

The Role of Health IT in Accountable Care, Featuring Geisinger

Here's another upcoming GE eHealth webinar. This one focuses on health IT and accountable care organizations (ACOs):

The Role of Health IT in Accountable Care, Featuring Geisinger

Tuesday, May 24, 2011
1:00 PM EST

Join GE Healthcare and Geisinger Health System for an Accountable Care power hour. This webinar will cover:

* Delivery system reform and an overview of public and private Accountable Care models
* Successful innovations at Geisinger Health System that are transforming the healthcare delivery system
* Health IT solutions to manage population health

Learn from Geisinger who's been recognized by President Obama for providing the kind of healthcare and vision America needs. How are they offering high quality care at costs well below average?

Featuring:

* John Kravitz, Associate Vice President of Information Technology, Geisinger Health System
* Mark Segal, Vice President, Government and Industry Affairs, GE Healthcare IT
* Joel Vengco, Vice President & General Manager, Global Product Strategy, GE Healthcare eHealth Solutions

@MEDecision at #HIMSS11 offering solutions for ACOs and PCMHs

MEDecision is a leading provider of collaborative health management solutions and I had the chance to sit down and chat with them about ACOs and PCMHs. The phrases "patient-centered medical homes" and "accountable care organizations" are becoming really popular phrases in the world of health IT. MEDecision offers solutions for physicians, hospitals, and other organizations that are looking to adopt ACO and PCMH models in the effort to improve health care quality and affordability. One recent announcement includes their InFrame™ mobile application that brings clinically validated electronic health records to mobile phones, tablets and similar devices.

Make sure to also catch Nathan Moracco, director of the State of Minnesota Employee Insurance Division, demonstrating how the state will use MEDecision’s Nexalign® health decision support service to power its personal health record program. Mr. Moracco will conduct his presentations in the MEDecision booth on Tuesday and Wednesday from 10:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

CME and the evolving health care system #acme2011

I am in San Francisco attending the Alliance for CME annual conference. Today, I listed to an interesting discussion looking at the health care system and the world of CME.

We are seeing two major system changes:

On the macro level, we see a movement towards ACOs. There is a greater level of accountability that is sweeping across the healthcare system.

On the micro level, we are seeing more PCMHs. Care coordination. More value. Less waste.

Our current system is broken, isn't it? How can a primary care physician keep up with so many different problems in a five-minute visit?

There are three major transformations:

1. Care is becoming continuous rather than episodic
2. Care becomes proactive rather than reactive
3. Patients become activated for self-management

The chronic care model is becoming the continuous care model. Patients will be the ones to construct their own medical homes.

So, as the world of health care continues to evolve, how will the CME world evolve? We will probably see the focus shifting towards prevention, systems improvement, behavior change, health coaching, the effective use of technology, patient empowerment, etc.

HIMSS Thought Leadership on Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs)

If you're attending HIMSS 2011, make sure you don't miss this: Leading from the Future: A Thought Leadership Event on Accountable Care Organizations

The transformation of health providers into Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), as called for in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, has dramatic implications based upon how CMS may assess and pay providers for their services in the future. Clearly, such a development has profound strategic and structural ramifications for providers. Although the move to an accountable care structure is currently at the choice of the Executive Management team and their Boards, there is a strong push from the Federal government to advance this transformation. And, many organizations have already undertaken the changes necessary to take advantage of the incentive payments associated with the impending CMS program.

Leading from the Future: A Thought Leadership Event on Accountable Care Organizations offers provider executives a unique opportunity to learn about the issues – and IT ramifications – associated with accountable care transformation. By attending this exceptional educational conference, leaders will gain invaluable insight on how IT must be a strategic consideration with critical issues such as ACO qualification criteria, payment methodologies and incentives, and performance measurement and reporting. Additionally, attendees will hear from executives at premiere provider organizations who have made the leap to accountable care. All of this will give provider leaders the robust perspective they need to infuse optimal IT strategy in planning for the future.