Serving the Value-Based Care Community
March 18, 2022
Welcome to this week's issue of VBC Newsstand brought to you by VBCExhibitHall.com
Healthcare Innovation | March 15, 2022
Two years into the global COVID-19 phenomenon, it’s become very clear that patient care organizations in the United States have taken a big financial hit from the pandemic. Not only has caring for COVID-19 patients turned out to be extremely expensive, the pandemic has also scrambled hospital operations in particular, as numerous nurses, physicians, and other clinicians have become infected the by virus, and others, burned out by the many months of stressful, often overtime, labor, have left the field altogether or, in the case of many nurses, quit their existing jobs in order to cash in as traveling nurses, at a time when those nurses are in extreme demand.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act placed a greater emphasis on models of reimbursing physicians and hospitals that hold them accountable for both quality and cost of care, an approach commonly referred to as value-based purchasing (VBP). The accountable care model is a particular VBP approach that has expanded rapidly. Within a Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) accountable care organization (ACO), physician group practices, hospitals, and health systems can receive payments known as “shared savings” for meeting care quality and spending benchmarks. Study findings have shown that ACOs improve care quality but only modestly reduce annual beneficiary spending. However, evidence suggests that spending reductions are heterogeneous...
As we discussed in our first blog post on ACO REACH, one of the concerns about Direct Contracting was patient risk coding abuse (also called “coding intensity”). Risk coding, or risk scoring, is used by Medicare Advantage (MA) to determine the payment an MA plan will receive for a given beneficiary. Risk scoring is also used by the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) to determine benchmarks, which in turn determine how much savings an MSSP Accountable Care Organization (ACO) receives each year. Global and Professional Direct Contracting (“Direct Contracting”) also uses risk scoring to determine the amount each Direct Contracting Entity (DCE) receives to manage a beneficiary’s care.
Some 50 percent of hospitals in the United States are racially segregated, meaning the patient populations they serve do not reflect the demographics of their communities, according to the latest analysis from healthcare thinktank Lown Institute which was emailed to journalists. This imperils national efforts for addressing health equity. The cities with the most racially segregated hospitals included Detroit, St. Louis, and Kansas City, the report added. Having a racially segregated hospital means the demographics of populations served do not align with the demographics of the greater community, the researchers explained.
Sponsored Webinars
UPCOMING WEBINARS:

Real World Strategies for Successful VBP Programs
  • Topic: designing and implementing effective value-based payment programs for Skilled Nursing Facilities
Sponsored by: PointRight
March 24, 2022 | 1 PM EST

The Outsized Impact of Risk Adjustment on MSSP/REACHPerformance and How It Fits into Your Financial Optimization Strategy
  • Topic: uses, implications and strategies of risk adjustment optimization efforts
Sponsored by: Validate Health
March 24, 2022 | 3 PM EST

SDoH, Equity, Experience and the New CMS requirements - What ACOs need to know
  • Topic: The latest CMS requirements, SDoH information capture, and impact of equity
Sponsored by: mPulse Mobile/HealthCrowd
March 31, 2022 | 1 PM EST

Optimizing 2023 model and participant selection for MSSP and REACH ACOs 
  • Topic: Making model, track and participant selection decisions
Sponsored by: Validate Health
April 6, 2022 | 1 PM EST



RECORDED WEBINARS:

A Perfect Storm: Increasing At-Risk Contract Lives & Decreasing Nursing Availability - Building a scalable model for VBC
  • Topic: Managing the rising-risk portion of a population and sustainably operationalizing care management teams
Sponsored by: CareSignal

Check our our Webinar Archive to view past webinars on a variety of value-based care related topics!

Upcoming Conferences
NAACOS 2022 Spring Conference
April 27 - 29, 2022 | Baltimore, MD

ACLC Advancing Health Virtual Summit
May 5, 2022 | Virtual

America's Physician Groups Annual Conference 2022
June 1 - 3, 2022 | Washington, D.C.

Virtual Value-Based Payment Summit
September 20 - 23, 2022
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FLASH INTERVIEW:
This week's focus: Closing the Care Gap with Diabetic Retinal Screenings
Each week we showcase one of our solution providers in a 4-5 minute interview and ask them what they bring to the VBC Community and what sets them apart.
Today's guest:
Platinum Level Exhibitors
Thank you to our Platinum Level exhibitors. These organizations offer the absolute highest quality products & services to the ACO & IPA community. To learn more & visit their interactive booths, click on the logos below:
Gold Level Exhibitors
Thank you to our Gold Level exhibitors. To learn more & visit their interactive booths, click on the logos below:
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