With Medicare Part A facing insolvency as early as 2026, CMS is looking to make dramatic moves. The CMS Innovation Center is aiming to have 100 percent of Medicare beneficiaries in some sort of accountable care relationship by 2030 – a shift that would have major revenue implications for hospitals and health systems. A closer… Read More

As I write this, the debate over America’s debt ceiling has reached a fever pitch, with dire predictions of mass layoffs, delayed Social Security checks, skyrocketing mortgage rates, and more. All that sound and fury is not a bad thing, since the consequences of a default would be catastrophic – a “meteor” on a collision… Read More

It seems like everyone is grading hospitals these days. Safety, value, clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction – the list of metrics for judging a “good” hospital just keeps growing and growing, so maybe it’s no wonder that the American Hospital Association is pushing back on the newest report card from the Lown Institute. Now in its… Read More

My Roomba just arrived, and I am beyond thrilled! Fed up with my inability to keep up with my golden retriever’s shedding, on a whim I did about 10 minutes of research on robotic vacuums and then added one to my Amazon cart. Less than 24 hours later, this game-changer arrived at my door. A… Read More

“Since 2010, 120 rural hospitals have closed across the United States.” We hear statistics like that a lot – so often, in fact, that the big numbers start to lose their impact. But in a story last week from my local news station, WRAL, the reporter went on to list by name seven of the… Read More

It’s rare that an emerging delivery model can show immediate progress on three of the measures that matter most in healthcare transformation: better outcomes at lower cost with higher patient satisfaction. If this is the “healthcare trifecta,” Hospital at Home may be one of the most promising trends in many years – yet it rarely… Read More

Recently, we were asked to participate in a virtual panel—hosted by our friends at Jarrard Phillips Cate & Hancock—regarding the impact of COVID-19 and the election on healthcare mergers and acquisitions. Check out the panel’s expert opinions here. In our decades of hospital consulting experience, we know that no two healthcare M&A transactions are alike…. Read More

Maryland is the only state in the country that has a waiver from the Medicare Prospective Payment System (“PPS”) and related regulations. The waiver allows the State to manage its healthcare costs through the evolution and implementation of progressive healthcare payment models.  In January 2019, the Total Cost of Care model (“TCOC”) replaced the All-Payer… Read More

Maryland is the only state in the country that has a waiver from the Medicare Prospective Payment System (PPS) and related regulations. The waiver allows the State to manage its healthcare costs through the evolution and implementation of the State’s unique payment model.  In the second of the three-part series, we examine how Maryland’s unique… Read More

This is the first in a three-part series that explores the unique all-payer model for hospital payments in Maryland.  This “Medicare waiver” from the typical Medicare rules and regulations has made the entire State of Maryland a demonstration project in healthcare transformation.  What is it, how is it working and what can we learn from… Read More