-
Health Affairs (Project Hope) Jul 2024The Next Generation Accountable Care Organization (NGACO) model (active during 2016-21) tested the effects of high financial risk, payment mechanisms, and flexible care...
The Next Generation Accountable Care Organization (NGACO) model (active during 2016-21) tested the effects of high financial risk, payment mechanisms, and flexible care delivery on health care spending and value for fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries. We used quasi-experimental methods to examine the model's effects on Medicare Parts A and B spending. Sixty-two ACOs with more than 4.2 million beneficiaries and more than 91,000 practitioners participated in the model. The model was associated with a $270 per beneficiary per year, or approximately $1.7 billion, decline in Medicare spending. After shared savings payments to ACOs were included, the model increased net Medicare spending by $56 per beneficiary per year, or $96.7 million. Annual declines in spending for the model grew over time, reflecting exit by poorer-performing NGACOs, improvement among the remaining NGACOs, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Larger declines in spending occurred among physician practice ACOs and ACOs that elected population-based payments and risk caps greater than 5 percent.
Topics: Accountable Care Organizations; United States; Humans; Health Expenditures; Medicare; Fee-for-Service Plans; COVID-19; Cost Savings
PubMed: 38950305
DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2022.01648 -
Health Affairs (Project Hope) Jul 2024Value-based payment has been promoted for increasing quality, controlling spending, and improving patient and practitioner experience. Meanwhile, needed reforms to...
Value-based payment has been promoted for increasing quality, controlling spending, and improving patient and practitioner experience. Meanwhile, needed reforms to fee-for-service payment (the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule) have been ignored as policy makers seek to move payment toward alternatives, even though the fee schedule is an intrinsic part of Alternative Payment Models. In this article, we show how value-based payment and the fee schedule should be viewed as complementary, rather than as separate silos. We trace the origins of embedded flaws in the fee schedule that must be fixed if value-based payment is to succeed. These include payment distortions that directly compromise value by overpaying for certain procedures and imaging services while underpaying for services that add value for beneficiaries. We also show how the fee schedule can accommodate bundled payments and population-based payments that are central to Alternative Payment Models. We draw two conclusions. First, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services should correct misvalued services and establish a hybrid payment for primary care that blends fee-for-service and population-based payment. Second, Congress should alter the thirty-five-year-old statutory basis for setting Medicare fees to allow CMS to explicitly consider policy priorities such as workforce shortages in refining fee levels.
Topics: United States; Fee Schedules; Medicare; Humans; Fee-for-Service Plans; Physicians; Reimbursement Mechanisms
PubMed: 38950303
DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2024.00299 -
Health Affairs (Project Hope) Jul 2024There is widespread agreement that taxpayers pay more when Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans than if those beneficiaries were enrolled...
There is widespread agreement that taxpayers pay more when Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans than if those beneficiaries were enrolled in traditional Medicare. MA plans are paid on the basis of submitted diagnoses and thus have a clear incentive to encourage providers to find and report as many diagnoses for their enrollees as possible. Two mechanisms that MA plans use to identify diagnoses that are not available for beneficiaries in traditional Medicare are in-home health risk assessments and chart reviews. Using MA encounter data for 2015-20, I isolated the impact of these two types of encounters on the risk scores used for payments to MA plans during 2016-21. I found that encounter-based risk scores for MA enrollees were higher by 0.091 points, or 7.4 percent, in 2021 when in-home health risk assessments and chart reviews were included than they would have been without the use of these tools.
Topics: Humans; United States; Medicare Part C; Risk Assessment; Aged; Male; Female; Aged, 80 and over; Clinical Coding; Home Care Services
PubMed: 38950298
DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2023.01530 -
Health Affairs (Project Hope) Jul 2024
Topics: COVID-19; Humans; United States; Medicare; SARS-CoV-2; Pandemics
PubMed: 38950292
DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2024.00674 -
Health Affairs (Project Hope) Jul 2024Although emergency department (ED) and hospital overcrowding were reported during the later parts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the true extent and potential causes of this...
Although emergency department (ED) and hospital overcrowding were reported during the later parts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the true extent and potential causes of this overcrowding remain unclear. Using data on the traditional fee-for-service Medicare population, we examined patterns in ED and hospital use during the period 2019-22. We evaluated trends in ED visits, rates of admission from the ED, and thirty-day mortality, as well as measures suggestive of hospital capacity, including hospital Medicare census, length-of-stay, and discharge destination. We found that ED visits remained below baseline throughout the study period, with the standardized number of visits at the end of the study period being approximately 25 percent lower than baseline. Longer length-of-stay persisted through 2022, whereas hospital census was considerably above baseline until stabilizing just above baseline in 2022. Rates of discharge to postacute facilities initially declined and then leveled off at 2 percent below baseline in 2022. These results suggest that widespread reports of overcrowding were not driven by a resurgence in ED visits. Nonetheless, length-of-stay remains higher, presumably related to increased acuity and reduced available bed capacity in the postacute care system.
Topics: United States; Emergency Service, Hospital; Humans; COVID-19; Medicare; Length of Stay; Aged; Female; Pandemics; Male; Patient Discharge; SARS-CoV-2; Hospitalization; Hospital Bed Capacity; Fee-for-Service Plans; Crowding; Emergency Room Visits
PubMed: 38950291
DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2023.01153 -
Journal of Managed Care & Specialty... Jul 2024The lowest-income beneficiaries enrolled in the Medicare Part D prescription drug program receive "full subsidies" that waive the premium and deductible and impose...
BACKGROUND
The lowest-income beneficiaries enrolled in the Medicare Part D prescription drug program receive "full subsidies" that waive the premium and deductible and impose minimal copayments. Those with slightly higher incomes and assets may be eligible for "partial subsidies." Prior to 2024, individuals receiving partial subsidies faced reduced Part D premiums and deductibles and paid 15% coinsurance. Under provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, recipients of partial subsidies were upgraded to full subsidies beginning in 2024. The objective of this pilot study was to assess whether the new policy is likely to reduce cost-related nonadherence to prescribed medications- a common problem faced by older adults even among those receiving subsidies.
OBJECTIVE
To compare cost-related nonadherence among partial- vs full-subsidy recipients with similar characteristics.
METHODS
We used 2019 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey data for the study. The Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey is uniquely suited for this work because it contains administrative data on low-income subsidy enrollment plus extensive survey-based information on financial resources necessary to establish program eligibility and rates of cost-related nonadherence. Explanatory variables included sociodemographic characteristics, economic resources, work status, and health variables.
RESULTS
We found that the partial-subsidy group reported significantly more cost-related nonadherence (39% vs 22%; = 0.01) arising both from a lower propensity to fill some prescriptions (23% vs 12%; = 0.03) and to more delays in filling others (29% vs 8%; = 0.03). The differences were more pronounced for women and racial and ethnic minority groups in contrast to men and majority populations, respectively. Because the study samples were small, we could not conduct a detailed regression analysis.
CONCLUSIONS
The magnitude of cost-related nonadherence effects associated with partial-subsidy cost sharing suggests that the Inflation Reduction Act policy to expand low-income subsidies may boost medication adherence, most notably among women and racial and ethnic minority groups.
Topics: Humans; Medicare Part D; United States; Male; Female; Poverty; Aged; Medication Adherence; Pilot Projects; Aged, 80 and over; Middle Aged; Deductibles and Coinsurance; Prescription Drugs
PubMed: 38950158
DOI: 10.18553/jmcp.2024.30.7.728 -
Journal of Managed Care & Specialty... Jul 2024Drug shortages threaten patients' access to medications and are associated with adverse health outcomes and increased costs. Drug shortages disproportionately occur...
Drug shortages threaten patients' access to medications and are associated with adverse health outcomes and increased costs. Drug shortages disproportionately occur among generic drugs of limited profitability, most notably drugs administered by injection. In this perspective, we discuss how reimbursement and purchasing practices that were meant to create an efficient marketplace for generics have generated strong price pressure that threatens profitability in certain markets. We further explain how, faced with limited profitability, manufacturers lack incentives to invest in resilient supply chains, and in some cases, engage in cost-containment strategies or decide to exit the market, ultimately contributing to shortages. We propose the development and implementation of value-based reimbursement to provide needed incentives for drug purchasers and manufacturers to establish a more reliable supply chain as part of the policy solution to reduce the number and extent of drug shortages. This reimbursement model would necessitate the development of a rating system that measures supply chain resilience and maturity for each generic product. This rating would then be applied as a value-based modifier to reimbursement rates for generic products. The proposed model would result in higher reimbursement rates for generic products from more dependable supply chains, generating incentives for manufacturers to invest in supply chain resiliency. We propose the application of this reimbursement system originally in Medicare given Congressional interest on reforming Medicare payment to prevent drug shortages.
Topics: United States; Drugs, Generic; Humans; Drug Industry; Drug Costs; Cost Control; Pharmaceutical Preparations; Value-Based Purchasing; Reimbursement Mechanisms
PubMed: 38950157
DOI: 10.18553/jmcp.2024.30.7.719 -
JAMA Neurology Jul 2024Claims data with International Statistical Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes are routinely used in clinical research. However, the use of ICD-10...
IMPORTANCE
Claims data with International Statistical Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes are routinely used in clinical research. However, the use of ICD-10 codes to define incident stroke has not been validated against expert-adjudicated outcomes in the US population.
OBJECTIVE
To develop and validate the accuracy of an ICD-10 code list to detect incident stroke events using Medicare inpatient fee-for-service claims data.
DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
This cohort study used data from 2 prospective population-based cohort studies, the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study and the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study, and included participants aged 65 years or older without prior stroke who had linked Medicare claims data. Stroke events in the ARIC and REGARDS studies were identified via active surveillance and adjudicated by expert review. Medicare-linked ARIC data (2016-2018) were used to develop a list of ICD-10 codes for incident stroke detection. The list was validated using Medicare-linked REGARDS data (2016-2019). Data were analyzed from September 1, 2022, through September 30, 2023.
EXPOSURES
Stroke events detected in Medicare claims vs expert-adjudicated stroke events in the ARIC and REGARDS studies.
MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
The main outcomes were sensitivity and specificity of incident stroke detection using ICD-10 codes.
RESULTS
In the ARIC study, there were 110 adjudicated incident stroke events among 5194 participants (mean [SD] age, 80.1 [5.3] years) over a median follow-up of 3.0 (range, 0.003-3.0) years. Most ARIC participants were women (3160 [60.8%]); 993 (19.1%) were Black and 4180 (80.5%) were White. Using the primary diagnosis code on a Medicare billing claim, the ICD-10 code list had a sensitivity of 81.8% (95% CI, 73.3%-88.5%) and a specificity of 99.1% (95% CI, 98.8%-99.3%) to detect incident stroke. Using any diagnosis code on a Medicare billing claim, the sensitivity was 94.5% (95% CI, 88.5%-98.0%) and the specificity was 98.4% (95% CI, 98.0%-98.8%). In the REGARDS study, there were 140 adjudicated incident strokes among 6359 participants (mean [SD] age, 75.8 [7.0] years) over a median follow-up of 4.0 (range, 0-4.0) years. More than half of the REGARDS participants were women (3351 [52.7%]); 1774 (27.9%) were Black and 4585 (72.1%) were White. For the primary diagnosis code, the ICD-10 code list had a sensitivity of 70.7% (95% CI, 63.2%-78.3%) and a specificity of 99.1% (95% CI, 98.9%-99.4%). For any diagnosis code, the ICD-10 code list had a sensitivity of 77.9% (95% CI, 71.0%-84.7%) and a specificity of 98.9% (95% CI, 98.6%-99.2%).
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
These findings suggest that ICD-10 codes could be used to identify incident stroke events in Medicare claims with moderate sensitivity and high specificity.
PubMed: 38949838
DOI: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2024.2044 -
Screening for Unhealthy Alcohol Use Among Patients With Multiple Chronic Conditions in Primary Care.AJPM Focus Aug 2024Unhealthy alcohol use increases the risk for and exacerbation of chronic health conditions. As such, screening, prevention, and management of unhealthy alcohol use is...
INTRODUCTION
Unhealthy alcohol use increases the risk for and exacerbation of chronic health conditions. As such, screening, prevention, and management of unhealthy alcohol use is especially critical to improving health outcomes for patients with multiple chronic health conditions. It is unclear to what extent multiple chronic condition status is a barrier to screening for unhealthy alcohol use in the primary care setting. The authors hypothesized that patients with multiple chronic conditions would be at lower odds of being screened for unhealthy alcohol use than patients without multiple chronic conditions.
METHODS
The authors performed a secondary analysis of electronic health record data for patients from 67 primary care practices in Virginia (2020-2023). Using the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services' chronic disease framework, they classified patients by multiple chronic condition status: no multiple chronic conditions, physical multiple chronic conditions, mental health multiple chronic conditions, and physical and mental health multiple chronic conditions. They used multiple logistic regressions with an added practice-level random effect to analyze the relationship between multiple chronic condition status and the odds of receiving an alcohol-related assessment, of being screened for unhealthy alcohol use with a U.S. Preventive Services Task Force-recommended instrument, and of screening positive for unhealthy alcohol use within the past 2 years.
RESULTS
Within a final cohort of =11,789, a total of 6,796 patients (58%) had multiple chronic conditions (29% physical multiple chronic conditions, 4% mental health multiple chronic conditions, and 25% physical and mental health multiple chronic conditions). In all, 69% of patients were screened for unhealthy alcohol use, whereas 16% were screened with a U.S. Preventive Services Task Force-recommended instrument, and 7% screened positive for unhealthy alcohol use. Patients with physical and mental health multiple chronic conditions had 0.9 times lower odds of receiving any screening for unhealthy alcohol use than those with no multiple chronic conditions (95% CI=0.8, 1.0; =0.0240), whereas patients with only physical multiple chronic conditions or only mental health multiple chronic conditions had similar odds. There was no difference in the odds of being screened with a U.S. Preventive Services Task Force-recommended instrument on the basis of multiple chronic condition status. Patients with mental health multiple chronic conditions and physical and mental health multiple chronic conditions had 1.8 and 1.5 times greater odds of screening positive for unhealthy alcohol use, respectively (95% CI=1.3, 2.7; =0.0014 and 95% CI=1.2, 1.8; =0.0003).
CONCLUSIONS
Although patients with chronic mental health conditions were more likely to screen positive for unhealthy alcohol use than patients without multiple chronic conditions, Virginia primary care patients with physical and mental health multiple chronic conditions were less likely to receive an alcohol-related assessment during the past 2 years. Given the overall modest rate of screening with a U.S. Preventive Services Task Force-recommended instrument, further efforts are needed to create the conditions for high-quality alcohol-related preventive service delivery in primary care, particularly for patients with high complexity and/or mental health conditions.
PubMed: 38947491
DOI: 10.1016/j.focus.2024.100233 -
Annals of Surgery Jul 2024To assess the association between the Global Budget Revenue (GBR) payment model and shifts to the outpatient setting for surgical procedures among Medicare...
OBJECTIVE
To assess the association between the Global Budget Revenue (GBR) payment model and shifts to the outpatient setting for surgical procedures among Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries in Maryland versus control states.
SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA
The GBR model provides fixed global payments to hospitals to reduce spending growth and incentivize hospitals to reduce the costs of care while improving care quality. Since surgical care is a major contributor to hospital spending, the GBR model might accelerate the ongoing shift from the inpatient to the outpatient setting to generate additional savings.
METHODS
A difference-in-differences (DiD) design was used to compare changes in surgical care settings over time from pre-GBR (2011-2013) to post-GBR (2014-2018) for Maryland versus control states for common surgeries that could be performed in the outpatient setting. A cross-sectional approach was used to compare the difference in care settings in 2018 for total knee arthroplasty which was on Medicare's Inpatient-Only List before then.
RESULTS
We studied 47,542 surgical procedures from 44,410 beneficiaries in Maryland and control states. GBR's 2014 implementation was associated with an acceleration in the shift from inpatient to outpatient settings for surgical procedures in Maryland (DiD: 3.9 percentage points, 95% CI: 2.3, 5.4). Among patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty in 2018, the proportion of outpatient surgeries in Maryland was substantially higher than that in control states (difference: 27.6 percentage points, 95% CI: 25.6, 29.6).
CONCLUSIONS
Implementing Maryland's GBR payment model was associated with an acceleration in the shift from inpatient to outpatient hospital settings for surgical procedures.
PubMed: 38946545
DOI: 10.1097/SLA.0000000000006427