Photo Report: LDI Medicare for All and Beyond Conference
Photo Report From The LDI Health Policy Retreat 2020
Do Incentive Payments Improve Home-Based Primary Care?
After five years, a small experiment to improve care for frail elderly patients receiving primary care at home has delivered some savings to Medicare—although it might be too small to know for sure. Authorized by the Affordable Care Act, the Independence at Home (IAH) Demonstration is part of a broader strategy of testing innovative ways to pay for value in health care—tying additional payment to higher quality care and cutting wasteful spending.
When Should Medicare Mandate Participation In Alternative Payment Models?
Joshua M. Liao, Mark V. Pauly, Amol S. Navathe
ABSTRACT [from journal]
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services continues to propose and implement alternative payment models (APMs) to shift Medicare payment away from fee-for-service and toward approaches that emphasize health care value. As APMs expand in scope, one critical question is whether they should engage providers on a voluntary or a mandatory basis. Clinicians and
...Aging and the Costs of Long-Term Care
Medicare SNF Payment Policy: What a Difference a Day Makes
It is hardly surprising that there’s a spike in the number of Medicare patients discharged from postacute care in a skilled nursing facility (SNF) the day before their copayment jumps from $0 to more than $150. However, the question remains whether this payment policy – which completely covers the first 20 days of a SNF stay – affects patient outcomes in any way.
Physician Consolidation and the Spread of Accountable Care Organizations
Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are groups of physicians and hospitals that jointly contract to care for a patient population. ACO contracts incentivize coordination of care across providers. This can lead to greater consolidation of physician practices, which can in turn generate higher costs and lower quality. Given this, the study asks, as ACOs enter health care markets, do physician practices grow larger?
New "Tradeoffs" Podcast Show Launches
Long-Term Care Financing in the United States
In the United States, people who need long-term care (LTC) face a system with large gaps in care, which they must rely on friends and family to fill. Medicaid finances the majority of paid LTC, but people must exhaust their resources to qualify. Medicare and private health insurance do not cover LTC, and the private market for long-term care insurance is failing. Unpaid family and friends provide most long-term services, but the value of their services is rarely reflected in debates about LTC financing and delivery. Beyond the value of the services, this system has costs to the economy, as spouses and adult children reduce paid work to care for their loved ones. As the population ages and families are less able to shoulder the burden of LTC, the current system may be unable to meet the growing need without an alternative, sustainable financing mechanism.
Health Care Podcast “Tradeoffs” to Launch at Penn
Welcoming New Senior Fellows to the Leonard Davis Institute
Health Care Safety-Net Programs Continue to Serve Most Vulnerable
[cross-posted from the United States of Care blog]
Beyond Physicians: Interdisciplinary Teams in Integrated Care
In our recent blog post, we explore barriers to behavioral health care in the United States and discuss an alternate strategy: integrated care. Traditionally, integrated care has entailed behavioral health care delivered by a primary care provider.
Patrick Conway's Quest to Revolutionize North Carolina Health Care
Achieving Value in Substance Use Disorder Treatment: Paying for What Works (and Not Paying for What Doesn’t)
[cross-posted from CHERISH