News Clips
Commonwealth Fund: (3/15) – Commonwealth Fund released a brief that highlights gaps in the U.S. primary care system by comparing its performance to systems in 10 other high-income countries. The report found U.S. adults are the least likely to have a regular physician or place of care, or a longstanding relationship with a primary care provider.
Fierce Healthcare: (3/15) – Two organizations are working together on a joint venture called Collaborative Choice Healthcare to expand value-based care in rural Colorado. The initiative was announced earlier this month and was launched by Community Care Alliance (CCA), an accountable care organization, and Collaborative Health Systems (CHS), a population health management organization. The initiative will reach rural health practices, critical access hospitals and health systems throughout Colorado and eastern Utah.
Modern Healthcare: (3/14) – In his budget proposal, California Governor Gavin Newsom proposed an Office of Health Care Affordability, which would order the state's hospitals, doctors' offices and insurance companies to keep their costs below a certain level. At least four other states — Massachusetts, Maryland, Rhode Island and Oregon — have similar offices. But none is as comprehensive as the one proposed in California.
Modern Healthcare: (3/14) – Special purpose acquisition companies experienced a meteoric rise in 2020, when more healthcare companies turned to these "blank check" companies as an alternative to executing their own initial public offerings. SPACs, which raise money through IPOs and use it to acquire other companies and take them public, were involved in 119 deals across all sectors in the third quarter of 2020 valued at a cumulative $40 billion, according to consulting firm RSM's analysis of Bloomberg data. So far this quarter, there have been 25 SPAC-led transactions valued at $4.1 billion, down from 437 deals worth an estimated $129.6 billion in the first quarter of 2021.
Commonwealth Fund: (3/11) – Although primary care is the lifeline of a health care system, the United States spends less on it and more on specialty care than other high-income countries. On the latest episode of The Dose, host Shanoor Seervai asks Asaf Bitton, M.D., executive director of the health innovation center Ariadne Labs, what it will take to rebuild the nation’s broken primary care system.
AJMC: (3/11) – Alternative payment models (APMs) encouraging provider collaboration may help small practices overcome the participation challenges that they face in APMs. This study found that small practices in ACOs controlled costs more so than large practices. Small practice participation may generate higher savings for ACOs.
Modern Healthcare: (3/11) – A jury sided with Sutter Health in the long-running federal lawsuit accusing the health system of anticompetitive business practices that drove up healthcare costs by more than $400 million. The unanimous verdict means Sutter has successfully defended against claims that it illegally forced insurers to include all 24 of its hospitals in their contracts, a practice known as tying. The 10-member jury also found Sutter did not force health plans into contracts that prevented them from steering patients to lower-cost, non-Sutter hospitals.
Modern Healthcare: (3/10) – The percentage of medical liability insurance premiums with year-to-year increases has surged for the third year in a row, a trend that could negatively affect independent providers who have experienced relatively low rates and a soft market for roughly the past 20 years. While the proportion of medical liability premiums with annual increases was somewhat stable between 2010 and 2018, in 2019 around 27 percent of premiums saw increases—nearly twice the rate from the previous year, according to a recent analysis by the American Medical Association.
AJMC: (3/9) – This study sought to determine associations between a large-scale primary care redesign—the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) Initiative—and the extent of continuity or fragmentation of ambulatory care for Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries during the first 3 years of CPC+. The study found no evidence that CPC+ increased continuity or decreased fragmentation of care.
Pubmed: (3/8) – This study sought to understand the challenges and lessons learned from implementing the Pennsylvania Rural Health Model for all-payer prospective global budget reimbursement. The study found that having a champion at the state and hospital level, significant cooperation across state agencies and between federal and state agencies, and support from nongovernment stakeholders was key to success of the model.
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