Health Affairs

Regarding the subject of “health care reform” during the past year, it is certain that more has been written about, more conferences have been devoted to, and more consultants have been engaged for the topic of “accountable care organizations” (ACOs) than any other.  ACOs are in the spotlight both because of several provisions in the... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s Note: This is the third and last installment of a series of blog posts by Ron Klar offering suggestions on how to make the Medicare Shared Savings Program a more viable vehicle for the creation of accountable care organizations. You can read the first installment here and the second installment here. In this posting I will... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s Note: This is the second installment of a series of blog posts by Ron Klar offering suggestions on how to make the Medicare Shared Savings Program a more viable vehicle for the creation of accountable care organizations. You can read the first installment here. In this posting I will address the three financial issues... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s Note: This is the first installment of a series of blog posts by Ron Klar offering suggestions on how to make the Medicare Shared Savings Program a more viable vehicle for the creation of accountable care organizations. This installment focuses on (1) the sharing model(s) for ACOs, and (2) the beneficiary issues of assignment,... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s Note:This post is part of a series of Health Affairs Blog posts examining the proposed rule implementing the Medicare Shared Savings Program, issued March 31 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. You can read earlier posts in the series by Mark McClellan and Elliott Fisher, Douglas Hastings, and Steve Lieberman. No proposed... Read the rest of this entry »

Certainly no Medicare provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has generated more interest among health care providers, policy analysts, and consultants than the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) for accountable care organizations (ACOs).  Because there are so many design elements for which the Secretary of Health and Human Services must “determine”, “establish”, and “specify”... Read the rest of this entry »

As a thirty-five year veteran of the debates and initiatives to reform the U.S. health insurance system, I am delighted that so much of the presidential campaign rhetoric, advertising, and general press coverage this month has included this subject. However, most of the rhetoric has focused on the “refundable tax credits” of Sen. John McCain... Read the rest of this entry »