Jonathan Blum news and information

Medicare entered year two of its accountable care experiment with a significant expansion, even as a top official said it was too soon to release early results.
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Medicare nearly doubled the size of one accountable care program as of Jan. 1 with 106 new ACO contracts that offer hospitals and doctors financial incentives to improve quality and slow health spending.
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The provisions of the quality-reporting programs laid out in the CMS' 2013 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule final rule "pose unique and significant challenges to specialty physicians, diverting time and resources away from direct patient care," according to the Alliance of Specialty Medicine, a...
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Sharp HealthCare, which formed one of the first Medicare ACOs, combed through lists of seniors for whom its doctors must manage care and costs only to find a number lacked primary-care physicians.
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The CMS official overseeing a controversial Medicare insurance pilot program told a congressional panel that he has seen anecdotal evidence that it is working. But that evidence is based “not on a scientific model.”
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The FamilyCare Medical Group in Syracuse, N.Y., considered but rejected Medicare's accountable care initiative because of a lack of needed capital.
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Medicare's accountable-care experiment, which seeks to revamp how hospitals and doctors get paid, more than doubled in size with 89 newly named participants.
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The CMS issued a proposed Medicare payment rule for end-stage renal disease facilities that would result in an overall payment increase of 3.1% in 2013.
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