Health Law Advisor

by Ross K. Friedberg, Shawn M. Gilman, Mark E. Lutes, David E. Matyas, René Y. Quashie, Serra J. Schlanger, Carrie Valiant, Dale C. Van Demark, and Lesley R. Yeung

On October 20, 2011, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ("CMS") released its final rule ("Final Rule") implementing the voluntary Medicare Shared Savings Program ("Program") for accountable care organizations ("ACOs"). The Program was established by Section 3022 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The Final Rule was released in conjunction with revised antitrust guidance from the Federal ...

by Lesley R. Yeung, Shawn M. Gilman, and Serra J. Schlanger

On August 23, 2011, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) Innovation Center announced a new initiative to encourage health care providers to better coordinate patient care. The Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Initiative (“Bundled Payments Initiative”) seeks to align the financial incentives among hospitals, physicians, and non-physician practitioners through the use of a single negotiated payment for all services provided during an episode of care. The use of a bundled payment is ...

As the health care world awaits the Medicare Shared Savings Program regulations expected to be issued soon by CMS, below is a wish list for key attributes that I hope the regulations evidence:

1. Flexibility. 

 "Transforming health care everywhere starts with transforming it somewhere." I hope that CMS takes Atul Gawande's advice and avoids being too proscriptive in launching the Share Savings Program. To me, the biggest risk to the program is being deemed a failure for having gone down too narrow a path that turns out to be unsuccessful.

Useful approaches have been suggested for ...

As the “Three Tenors” (Chairmen Waxman, Miller and Rangel) struggle to finance the access enhancements that are central to the President’s health reform aspirations, the need for meaningful payment reform continues to challenge. This week House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged the Chairmen to sharpen their pencils in this regard. Moreover, in a letter to the Speaker and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, the fiscally-conservative “Blue Dog” coalition of House Democrats has now said that the current drafts fail to include sufficient structural reforms likely to succeed in ...

Much of the work of the Commonwealth Fund and others seems to presume that payors are a necessary intermediary and should be the entities doling out population prepayment (aka capitation before it was a nasty word). However, it need not work out that way – particularly with House Dems’ concern that Medicare Advantage was profiteering.

It would be a small step for the new public plan likely to be created to make “population prepayments” directly to integrated health systems particularly because the covered lives under such a plan are likely to have the benefit of public ...