Blog

Burnout, often defined as mental and physical exhaustion caused by excessive work-related stress, is a common issue in many professions, especially healthcare. In particular, nurses and physicians frequently experience burnout due to the stressful nature of their positions, and the number of healthcare practitioners who report feelings of burnout has been steadily increasing in recent […]

Readmission rates are a concern for many hospitals, as admitting the same patient multiple times is costly, and, if readmission rates for the facility are higher than average, it can lead to penalties under the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP). As such, many organizations are continuously looking for ways […]

To improve quality scores and patient outcomes, healthcare organizations often need to implement strategies that close gaps in care. When there are gaps in patient care, individuals are more likely to experience negative health outcomes, which can result in readmission, lower quality and satisfaction scores, and increased costs for healthcare providers. However, closing these gaps […]

The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) is a standardized survey developed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service (CMS) that is sent to patients after they have been discharged from a hospital. The HCAHPS Scores are determined by survey measures of patient satisfaction with their hospital experience, asking questions about […]

Social Determinants of Health (SDOH), or the economic and social conditions that influence the health of patients, have a significant impact on medical outcomes. Factors like homelessness, food insecurity, education quality, and employment opportunities all play a role in an individual’s health and well-being—in fact, some experts say more than 80% of health is directly […]

Bundled Payments for Care Improvement (BPCI) was an initiative created by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) to test the efficacy of several different episode-based payment models in producing higher quality, more coordinated health care at a lower cost to Medicare. BPCI was launched in 2013 concluded in 2018. The BPCI Advanced Model […]

OCM 2.0 is a proposed alternative to the current Oncology Care Model (OCM) program, and was created by the Community Oncology Alliance (COA) in June 2019. COA submitted OCM 2.0 to the Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC), an advisory committee that evaluates physician-focused payment models for the Secretary of Health and Human Services […]

The Oncology Care Model (OCM) is an episode-based payment model designed to provide high quality, highly coordinated oncology care at low cost. In order to assess and verify clinical outcomes, patient outcomes, and coordination of care, as well as ensure continued quality of care, CMS measures OCM participants’ performance using quality measures from four of […]

A Monthly Enhanced Oncology Services (MEOS) payment is part of the two-part payment system specific to the Oncology Care Model (OCM). Under OCM, participating Medicare-enrolled physician groups continue to receive regular fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare payments, but also receive a MEOS payment of $160 per-beneficiary for delivery of “enhanced services,” as well as a retrospective performance-based […]

The Oncology Care Model (OCM) is an episode-based payment model developed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Innovation Center (CMMI) in order to improve the quality of care cancer patients receive at the same or lower cost. According to the National Cancer Institute, “In 2018, an estimated 1,735,350 new cases of cancer [were] […]

Patient satisfaction: a subjective measure of whether a patient’s expectations about a health encounter were met. Patient satisfaction can be a loaded term. Patients want a great care experience, and the focus of physicians and nurses is to provide great health care, but these two priorities are not always aligned. Patient satisfaction doesn’t always correlate […]

In remarks to the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative, HHS Secretary Alex Azar confirmed that new mandatory bundled payment models are coming. During his tenure as Secretary of HHS, Azar has consistently signaled that new, required episode-based payment models are coming, and elaborated on those plans in yesterday’s remarks, saying, “We need results, American patients need change, and […]