The American journal of managed care
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To determine if Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) accountable care organizations (ACOs) are meeting public reporting requirements related to shared savings plans, to quantitate the composition of shared savings distribution plans, and to investigate whether early ACO success is associated with specific plan or ACO characteristics. ⋯ Just over one-half of MSSP ACOs report detailed shared savings distribution plans online, and these plans vary widely. There appears to be no single shared savings distribution plan determinate of ACO success. Continued investigation of predictors for generating savings is needed to inform future shared savings models.
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The typical focus in discussions of healthcare spending is on direct medical costs such as physician reimbursement. The indirect costs of healthcare-patient opportunity costs associated with seeking care, for example-have not been adequately quantified. We aimed to quantify the opportunity costs for adults seeking medical care for themselves or others. ⋯ In the United States, opportunity costs associated with ambulatory medical care are substantial. Accounting for patient opportunity costs is important for examining US healthcare system efficiency and for evaluating methods to improve the efficient delivery of patient-centered care.
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Osteoarthritis of the knee is a chronic disease associated with pain and reduced quality of life. The ability to reliably measure patient-reported symptoms is important for clinical decision making and evaluation of outcomes. Electronic and web-based tools can eliminate much of the labor-intensive aspects of questionnaire administration and enables both real-time evaluation of responses by physicians and integration of data from multiple sites. This article describes the results of implementing a single integrated electronic questionnaire system into routine orthopedic practice at 2 diverse institutions. ⋯ Lessons learned for future adoption of questionnaire systems elsewhere include the need for baseline assessment of clinic work flows to identify the optimal point of administration and the need for IT support. This study demonstrates the feasibility of routinely collecting patient-reported data as part of standard care, which will become increasingly important as the nationwide emphasis on tracking quality and cost-effectiveness of treatments in orthopedics grows.
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Our nation's primary care system is in crisis. As medical homes and accountable care organizations increasingly rely on a strong primary care workforce, the shortage of primary care physicians now calls for more policy attention and urgency. ⋯ Such a policy could allow hospitals to retain GME funding at a time when continued federal subsidization of GME is being called into question. Moreover, hospitals stand to benefit from producing primary care physicians, both under traditional fee-for-service contracts that reward volume through referrals and, especially, under risk contracts that reward for greater numbers of covered lives.