The US Opioid Crisis Continues to Grow. In our previous blog Opioid Epidemic, Part 1: The Prevalence of Opioid Use Disorder and Impact of Distressed Communities, we utilized Medicare Part D data (over 40 million enrolled beneficiaries) to highlight the growing prevalence rates across the board in the U.S. In short, the key findings were [...]

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) recent COVID-19 changes to it’s Alternative Payment Models (APMs) present an opportunity for the oncology community. With the changes, CMS has given Oncology Care Model (OCM) practices the opportunity to “forgo upside and downside risk for performance periods” during the pandemic, to remove COVID-19 related episodes, and to elect into aggregate quality measures. [...]

Earlier this year, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) announced five new payment models designed to transform primary care by paying providers for outcomes rather than services. Direct Contracting and Primary Care First are two of these models announced by CMS to help encourage providers […]

Kidney Care Choices (KCC) is a voluntary alternative payment model built on top of the Comprehensive End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Care (CEC) model structure. The goal of the KCC model is to encourage nephrologists, dialysis facilities, and ESRD healthcare practices to [...]

According to the American Heart Association, more than 1.5 million people in the United States experience a heart attack or stroke each year, with heart disease and stroke consistently among the top causes of death and disability. This costs the US healthcare system over $350 billion annually. [...]