The Rundown | Week of 3.27.2017

Healthcare is a rapidly evolving industry – it’s difficult to read up on everything that matters to you. But the success of your practice can depend on how knowledgeable you are about changes in the healthcare landscape. Privia has compiled a weekly list of important articles we are reading on healthcare industry trends, clinical best practices and legislative updates for your convenience. Here are some of the important articles and blogs on health care that stood out this week:

• As GOP bill founders, pressure mounts on insurers to keep ACA alive, Modern Healthcare

Interesting clip: GOP leaders could face a crisis soon when jittery insurers must announce whether they’ll sell plans for 2018 and how they’ll price them. Ryan said his big concern is that the ACA insurance market could collapse, with exiting insurers and soaring premiums. ‘We’ll try to prop it up, but it’s so fundamentally flawed that I don’t know if it’s possible.’”

• Feds unveil new enrollment system for Medicare ACOs, Benefits Pro

Interesting clip: “In its drive to reduce Medicare spending, the federal government is trying to increase participation in accountable care organizations by aligning patients with a particular ACO if their primary care doctor is part of one.”

• CMS seeks to attract more patients, docs to ACOs, Modern Healthcare

Interesting clip: “The CMS is trying to boost patient and provider participation in accountable care organizations by automating the process to pair patients with doctors enrolled in the care models. In the coming weeks, a Medicare beneficiary can go to a website that contains their enrollment information and list his or her primary-care doctor. If that doctor is in an ACO, they would be assigned to both that provider and their ACO starting next year.”

• The Changing Healthcare System and Physician Happiness, Physician’s Practice

Interesting clip: “The American Medical Association estimated that over 50 percent of the current physicians in the U.S. are employees of a hospital or healthcare system. According to the physicians I work with in my area, the employed doctors are not very happy. They have little or no control over what they do, where to refer a patient, or the tests that they are being asked to order.”

• Five ways tech can help close Healthcare gaps, Managed Healthcare

Interesting clip: “More than 141 million Americans have one or more chronic conditions, according to a 2015 RAND Health study. Additionally, two-thirds of Medicare beneficiaries have two or more chronic conditions such as diabetes or heart disease, according to CMS. Yet a January 2017 HealthMine Health Plan Intelligence Survey of 750 insured consumers who are enrolled in a wellness program found that half of health plan members with chronic conditions are contacted by their insurer once per year or less. Only a quarter of respondents in the survey received any intervention from their health plan relevant to their illness.”