Podcasts about caravan health

In this episode of Health Care by the Numbers, guest host Patty Ballman, Executive Vice President, Value Based Care at Caravan Health, part of Signify Health, is joined by Marcus Lanznar, Senior Vice President of Product, Signify Health. During this podcast, they focus on the benefits of in-home evaluations (IHEs) for patients, providers, and payers. They discuss Signify Heath's innovative approach to IHEs, and how the service can be incorporated into accountable care. Find all of our network podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms and be sure to subscribe and like us. Learn more at www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen/

Guest host Patti Schnieder, Vice President of Business Development, is joined by Anthony Esgro, 340B Program Director at Caravan Health, part of Signify Health. On this episode they weigh in on the savings and newly generated revenue that Caravan's ACO partners have been able to achieve by optimizing their 340B programs. Find all of our network podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms and be sure to subscribe and like us. Learn more at www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen/

On this episode of Health Care by the Numbers, Kim Holland, Senior Vice President at Signify Health is a guest host and is joined by Tim Gronniger, Executive Vice President at Signify Health and CEO at Caravan Health. During this episode, they discuss the goal that CMMI set in their recent Strategy Refresh to get all Medicare lives and most Medicaid lives into accountable care or total cost of care arrangements by 2030. Kim and Tim share policy takeaways and focus on ambitious goals that set the stage for ACO work in this decade. Find all of our network podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms and be sure to subscribe and like us. Learn more at www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen/

Value based care is hard enough even in a well resourced setting. So just try making it work in a rural area without the scale, staffing and population density. But that's the market Tim Gronniger, CEO of Caravan Health is addressing, bringing together safety net and community health systems to deliver high quality, low cost care in a culturally sensitive manner

Patients in rural parts of the United States often face specific and numerous barriers to care, including financial hurdles, logistical concerns and trust in the healthcare system.As the founder of Caravan Health and Chief Innovation Officer at Signify Health, Lynn Barr is deeply involved in rural health policy. She joins Healthcare IT News Senior Editor Kat Jercich to discuss her journey of working with health systems, what role population health programs and value-based payment can play in inequities, and what policy changes are necessary for safety-net providers.Talking points:-60 million people live in rural America-What data measurement can reveal about quality -The divide in life expectancy between rural and urban Americans-Population health programs and value-based payment addressing inequities-The HITECH Act's effect on independent physicians-Small numbers don't work for judging cost-Leading indicators of success for population health-Why regional benchmarks may not be useful for safety-net providersMore about this episode:Rural hospitals face growing sustainability threats on multiple fronts, AHA saysRural hospitals need more than telehealth to survive the pandemicCMS announces a new value-based payment model for rural healthcare providersHHS puts $48M toward rural public health IT, workforce expansion

The recent dust-up over Direct Contracting and its ultimate rebranding as the ACO REACH model may have led some to believe that our path forward is unclear. That couldn't be further from the truth. On this episode, we talk with François de Brantes, Senior Vice President of Episodes of Care at Signify Health, about where we are on the pathway to escaping the tyranny of Fee-For-Service healthcare. It's tyranny because it prevents us from delivering care the way we want to and need to. Advanced Alternative Payment Models like ACO Reach allow organizations to separate payment from delivery, stop focusing their efforts on top-line revenue, and begin to operate like typical P & L driven companies. The promise, of course, is that this will change the way healthcare is delivered in the U.S., improve outcomes and lower costs. We discuss: - Has utilization and payment returned to pre-pandemic norms? - Why are commercial carriers lagging behind Medicare and Medicaid in launching Advanced Alternative Payment Models? - Will the shift to value and consumer-centric delivery methods like telemedicine diminish uncompensated care? - Is it possible to be proactive and patient-centric in Fee-for-service? - Are provider systems ready for AAPMs? - Can employers band together to create enough demand for AAPMs in the under-65 commercial market? - What were the arguments against the Direct Contracting Model? - Did they have merit? - What changes were made to Direct Contracting as part of the rebrand to ACO Reach? - How does this dust-up over Direct Contracting confirm we are on a bi-partisan, unwavering march toward value and never going back? - Why did Signify Health acquire Caravan Health?   For full show notes and links: https://thehcbiz.com/189-escaping-the-tyranny-of-fee-for-service-healthcare-francois-de-brantes/

On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we speak with Tim Gronniger, the CEO of Caravan Health, about what to look for as accountable care organizations (ACOs) and policy makers try to encourage more providers to join value-based care arrangements.

In yet another twist, the FDA delays its review of COVID vaccines for young kids. Republicans call for the end of the public health emergency. And Signify Health acquires Caravan Health.

Jess and Matthew are worried about Peleton's CEO! Well that not worried. Signify Health buys Caravan Health for $250m ; Koneksa gets $45m; Jasper Health gets $25m; $30m for Vynca; & Doximity pays $82.5m for scheduling co Amion, while going gangbusters on its numbers.

Jess and Matthew are worried about Peleton's CEO! Well that not worried. Signify Health buys Caravan Health for $250m ; Koneksa gets $45m; Jasper Health gets $25m; $30m for Vynca; & Doximity pays $82.5m for scheduling co Amion, while going gangbusters on its numbers.

In this healthcare podcast, we're gonna talk about the realities of setting up a clinically integrated network, otherwise known as a CIN. If only the whole process was unicorns and rainbows, but—as you likely suspected—it's not. Setting up a clinically integrated network is hard work, but the payoff for patients and clinicians alike can be worth fighting for. First of all, what is a clinically integrated network? It is a kind of ACO (accountable care organization). It is a legal entity that is a form of an ACO. So, every CIN is an ACO. But not all—in fact, most—ACOs are not CINs.  CINs enable coordinated care. Everybody in the network gets together to figure out how to enable clinicians to (for reals) follow their patients through multiple care settings and plan for an entire care journey. It can really help the patients navigate our crazy healthcare industry by giving them a trusted team that plots out a proactive path toward better healthcare outcomes and then make sure the patient stays on that path. It can be a really beautiful thing. Listen to EP349 with Lisa Trumble for real-world examples of the patient outcomes and experience a CIN can generate. All this for the patient while, at the same time, the total cost of care for Medicare patients goes down, I've heard, about 10% on average; but it can be more, as Lisa Trumble also talks about in episode 349 as aforementioned.  Alright … as we all know in healthcare, what's best for the patient doesn't, in so many cases, mean higher reimbursements. Sadly. So, what financial advantages does going through the time and trouble to create a CIN bring? There are basically four financial opportunities that can be realized with a CIN. I learned some of this from my guest today, Shawn Rhodes, who called strategically managing these four possible financial incentives “a delicate balance”; and as I get into some of them, you will see why. CIN Financial Opportunity #1: Similar to an ACO, if you're a CIN (because you are an ACO), you can participate in the Medicare Shared Savings Program, otherwise known as MSSP. The Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) is the way that ACOs get paid a little something extra if they achieve savings goals for Medicare. The provider shares in the savings. Get it? And CINs are generally well equipped to realize these shared savings goals because to obtain the quality that you have to to pull off the shared savings, being clinically integrated really helps. CIN Financial Opportunity #2: Getting a gang of providers (doctors) together, you can do collective bargaining. So, back to basics with this one. You get a bunch of docs together in a region, then you all go to the big BUCAH plan—meaning the Blue Cross, the Cigna, the Aetna, Anthem, Humana—you go to them together and make your contracting demands, as opposed to each little doc practice going in all by yourself and trying to negotiate David and Goliath style. Now, what the payer might want from your collective crew there, the payer might insist on some kind of value-based agreement. Even if it's an FFS (fee-for-service) contract chassis, they'll attach some kind of quality or outcome component. So again, being organized in a CIN is a bonus either way. CIN Financial Opportunity #3: Your CIN can try to do direct contracting with local employers. Check out EP350 with Katy Talento for more on direct contracting. Actually, Lisa Trumble also mentions this in EP349.   CIN Financial Opportunity #4: Lastly, you can work with local hospitals' quality and efficiency programs. From a hospital financial perspective, they might be interested in the care that happens after an inpatient stay. If the outpatient care at an integrated skilled nursing facility, for example, is good, then the hospital could, for example, reduce readmissions. Now, caveat: I asked (maybe grilled is a better word) our guest in this episode, Shawn Rhodes, about this whole “prevent a readmission” business. Because on one hand, oh wow, you get a couple points back from having lower readmissions—which you can game all day long, by the way. Listen to the show with Dr. Rishi Wadhera (EP326) for more on how to not get dinged for readmissions even if you effectively have readmissions.   So, said another way, the crafty, albeit dubious, power move here if you're a hospital to maximize revenue is to let patients come back to the hospital after discharge but just don't call it a readmission. Call it, I don't know, observational. Then bill fee for service for the whole thing and get the reducing readmission financial incentives. At this point in the time-space continuum, everybody knows this stuff. This is not some kind of secret that I'm spilling here. Anyway, I bring this up because don't forget what I just said: The #4 CIN financial opportunity that Shawn Rhodes had mentioned is hooking up with a local hospital as part of their quality and efficiency program and the hospital looking to the CIN to reduce readmissions. Given the open secret on hospitals and readmissions, my Spidey sense just got really curious. So, when I pressed on this point, Shawn didn't talk about the CIN sharing any financial gains from the reducing readmission incentive program like I might have expected. Instead, he mentioned that having lower readmissions is a way for hospitals to get some negotiating leverage with payers. The next time your hospital's payer contract comes up, you can point to lower readmissions and then demand higher FFS fees. You also might be able to improve throughput of profitable service lines by reducing the number of patients who turn back up after their earlier procedure—which is another way, again, to increase FFS revenues, since the more patients you put through, the more revenue. This is why I like talking to people with a touchstone to the real world. You find out what the actual deal is. Now, I say all this to say that if patients get better care and their care journey is non-fragmented, it's a win-win. And CINs, like most ACOs, have been shown to trim the cost of care with great patient feedback. That's amazing. Just a quick spoiler here, but the seven parameters that Shawn Rhodes and I discuss in this episode which are essential for anyone who is looking to stand up a CIN or basically achieve success—and, I would guess, almost any value-based model—you gotta have an infrastructure that takes into account the following seven things: Patient-first and agile culture Interoperability Patient-centered processes Actionable information (not just data) Clinical integration Strategic planning and alignment of all stakeholders in the CIN Strong leadership My guest in this episode, Shawn Rhodes, has worked in performance and quality improvement for many years. He has worked at a CIN in Bowling Green, Kentucky; and he has overseen multiple value-based programs. Shawn currently serves as regional VP at Caravan Health. You can learn more at caravanhealth.com or connect with Shawn on LinkedIn.   Shawn Rhodes serves as regional vice president at Caravan Health, a services and technology company that helps hospitals and physicians who care for underserved population succeed in value-based care. Shawn collaborates with clients to develop tailored population health strategies and support their efforts to deliver the highest-quality, patient-focused care at the lowest cost. Prior to Caravan Health, Shawn served as the director of clinical integration for a clinically integrated network, Med Center Health Partners, where he oversaw value-based agreements (commercial, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, BPCI, and employer health plans) with various payers along with ACO activities and quality improvement initiatives within the network. Before his work in value-based care, Shawn served as director of education and organizational development at Baptist Health Hardin, focusing on leadership development and cultural change through Studer Group initiatives. The early part of Shawn's career was spent in industrial equipment design and progressed into the automotive manufacturing industry working with Toyota and Honda on quality and process improvement. He then transitioned to the healthcare industry where he worked for eight years as a consultant specializing in coaching and mentoring hospitals to achieve improved quality, efficiency, and financial performance through process improvement, LEAN techniques, and reengineering. Shawn has a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and a master's degree in business administration from Western Kentucky University. He resides in Bowling Green, Kentucky. 08:08 What are the seven parameters to consider when standing up a CIN? 08:25 “Culture trumps strategy.” 09:10 “Communication and education are key components to starting that … process.” 09:26 “How do you get the information to the right person at the right time and the right place?” 09:36 What does interoperability need to look like in a CIN? 10:29 How do organizations communicate with the patient in a CIN? 11:07 Can a clinically integrated network work if it's not patient-centric? 11:37 EP332 with Tony DiGioia, MD.11:49 What's a must-have for a clinically integrated network to be successful? 13:41 “What does that data mean?” 15:34 EP315 with Bob Matthews.15:52 “You really need a go-to person.” 18:57 “The thing with team-based care is, you also have to have team-based accountability.” 20:54 “You've got to build some infrastructure around what you want to do.” 24:37 “Alignment is not an easy task by any means.” 25:15 “There has to be a group decision-making process.” 25:34 EP343 with David Carmouche, MD.25:41 EP341 with Gary Campbell.26:18 How do you define leadership? 27:49 “Start small, get some successes, and it will build as you go.” You can learn more at caravanhealth.com or connect with Shawn on LinkedIn.   Shawn Rhodes, regional VP at @CaravanHealth, discusses #CINs on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #clinicallyintegratednetwork What are the seven parameters to consider when standing up a CIN? Shawn Rhodes, regional VP at @CaravanHealth, discusses #CINs on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #clinicallyintegratednetwork “Culture trumps strategy.” Shawn Rhodes, regional VP at @CaravanHealth, discusses #CINs on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #clinicallyintegratednetwork “Communication and education are key components to starting that … process.” Shawn Rhodes, regional VP at @CaravanHealth, discusses #CINs on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #clinicallyintegratednetwork “How do you get the information to the right person at the right time and the right place?” Shawn Rhodes, regional VP at @CaravanHealth, discusses #CINs on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #clinicallyintegratednetwork What does interoperability need to look like in a CIN? Shawn Rhodes, regional VP at @CaravanHealth, discusses #CINs on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #clinicallyintegratednetwork How do organizations communicate with the patient in a CIN? Shawn Rhodes, regional VP at @CaravanHealth, discusses #CINs on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #clinicallyintegratednetwork Can a clinically integrated network work if it's not patient-centric? Shawn Rhodes, regional VP at @CaravanHealth, discusses #CINs on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #clinicallyintegratednetwork What's a must-have for a clinically integrated network to be successful? Shawn Rhodes, regional VP at @CaravanHealth, discusses #CINs on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #clinicallyintegratednetwork “What does that data mean?” Shawn Rhodes, regional VP at @CaravanHealth, discusses #CINs on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #clinicallyintegratednetwork “You really need a go-to person.” Shawn Rhodes, regional VP at @CaravanHealth, discusses #CINs on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #clinicallyintegratednetwork “The thing with team-based care is, you also have to have team-based accountability.” Shawn Rhodes, regional VP at @CaravanHealth, discusses #CINs on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #clinicallyintegratednetwork “You've got to build some infrastructure around what you want to do.” Shawn Rhodes, regional VP at @CaravanHealth, discusses #CINs on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #clinicallyintegratednetwork “Alignment is not an easy task by any means.” Shawn Rhodes, regional VP at @CaravanHealth, discusses #CINs on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #clinicallyintegratednetwork “There has to be a group decision-making process.” Shawn Rhodes, regional VP at @CaravanHealth, discusses #CINs on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #clinicallyintegratednetwork How do you define leadership? Shawn Rhodes, regional VP at @CaravanHealth, discusses #CINs on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #clinicallyintegratednetwork “Start small, get some successes, and it will build as you go.” Shawn Rhodes, regional VP at @CaravanHealth, discusses #CINs on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #clinicallyintegratednetwork   Recent past interviews: Click a guest's name for their latest RHV episode! Pramod John (EP353), Pramod John (EP352), Dr Eric Bricker, Katy Talento, Stacey Richter (INBW33), Stacey Richter (INBW32), Dr Steve Schutzer (Encore! EP294), Lisa Trumble, Jeb Dunkelberger, Dr Ian Tong, Mike Schneider, Peter Hayes, Paul Simms, Dr Steven Quimby, Dr David Carmouche (EP343), Christin Deacon, Gary Campbell, Kristin Begley, David Contorno (AEE17), David Contorno (EP339), Nikki King, Olivia Webb, Brandon Weber, Stacey Richter (INBW30), Brian Klepper (AEE16), Brian Klepper (EP335), Sunita Desai, Care Plans vs Real World (EP333)

Host Louise Yinug is joined by Caravan Health leader Tom Hawkes. Tom joined Caravan in 2017 and fills the organization's newly created role of Chief Information and Digital Product Officer. Tom leads Caravan's technology and product strategies to support clients in their delivery of population health methodologies. During this episode, Tom shares his experience in health care technology, how technology drives value-based care, and gives a peek behind the curtains to the innovations happening at Caravan Health. Find all of our network podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms and be sure to subscribe and like us. Learn more at www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen/

Host Louise Yinug is joined by Miguel Brumant, Chief of Staff at Caravan Health. Miguel serves as the company's first Chief of Staff to the Chief Executive Officer, coming on board in 2019. Miguel has a diverse background that has enabled him to collaborate across diverse teams to positively impact health outcomes and experience transitioning from a large health care system (New York Presbyterian Hospital) to an ACO enablement company (Caravan Health). Miguel shares his experience in health policy management, health enterprise, strategy development, population health, and medical group management. Find all of our network podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms and be sure to subscribe and like us. Learn more at www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen/

Hosts Louise Yinug is joined by longtime leader Sue Deitz Senior Vice President of Business Development at Caravan Health. Together, they talk through Sue's experience in rural health, how rural providers and community hospitals can succeed in accountable care, minimize uncertainty, and gain scale. Their conversation will review the most important changes for an ACO, how small communities can get involved in accountable care, and how organizations can operationalize so they can have the benefits of downside risk and safety take risk. Find all of our network podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms and be sure to subscribe and like us. Learn more at www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen/

In this week's episode, Senior Editor of Managed Healthcare Executive, Peter Wehrwein, speaks with Chief Medical Officer of Caravan Health, Ashok Roy. The two dug into the approach of delivering quality care at Caravan, discussed ACOs in care and population health. 

In this episode, Ed interviews CEO of Caravan Health, Tim Gronniger. They discuss his journey from working on capital hill, finding a company that aligns with his values and experience, the problems technology solves in the healthcare industry, and the effects it has on patient loyalty. 

Hosts Louise Yinug, Lynn Barr, Founder and Executive Chair and Dr. Ashok Roy, CMO at Caravan Health sit down with Quint Studer, a true health care visionary, author, and friend of Caravan for their discussion on strengthening Community Health Systems through value-based care. The topics included are those impacting the health care industry today, such as rural health accessibility, hospital closures, and physician shortages. They focus on the challenges facing small independent health systems, how to implement better support systems for physicians, and the benefits of accountable care for community health systems. Find all of our network podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms and be sure to subscribe and like us. Learn more at www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen/

Host Louise Yinug is joined by Caravan Health Regional VPs Jade Jagers and Rusty Schlessman. Jade and Rusty have helped shape the largest ACO in the country and have been a key part of this effort by working alongside clients as trusted advisors, identifying improvement opportunities, and sharing pertinent information. Jade and Rusty share their approach to ACOs, lessons learned from working closely with clients, and what we can expect to see in the future for our clients across the country. Find all of our network podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms and be sure to subscribe and like us. Learn more at www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen/

Host Louise Yinug is joined by Nicole Banister, Senior Vice President of Practice Transformation at Caravan Health for Caravan Health's Approach to Practice Transformation. Together, they discuss practice transformation, how to succeed in value-based care, and how to successfully implement population health methodologies. Their conversation will unpackage successes, how they are working to improve patient care through ACO participation and what Caravan clients can look forward to in 2022. Find all of our network podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms and be sure to subscribe and like us. Learn more at www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen/

In this week's episode Senior Editor Peter Wehrwein chats with Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Caravan Health Lynn Barr. The two discussed the relationship of payers and ACOs and the approach toward the direct contracting model.

In this episode, we have Tim Gronniger, he has served as the President & CEO of Caravan Health since 2019. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the National Association for Accountable Care Organizations. Tim joined Caravan Health in 2017 as the Senior Vice President for Strategy and Development, becoming the company President in 2018. In those roles he oversaw the company’s delivery and operations as well as marketing and its strategic growth plan.

On this podcast we are always looking for innovative technologies and services that address unmet need in healthcare, expand access to essential and effective healthcare and improve outcomes for both patients and providers. So, we were excited at the opportunity to speak with Tim from Caravan Health! While ACO's may not have the appeal of flashy new gadgets from the big-four tech companies, underneath their modest surface is a program with huge potential to impact lives. Accountable Care Organizations are the result of a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) program aimed at incentivizing the rapid adoption of value-based care. These programs, if implemented effectively and sustainably, could save CMS hundreds of millions, even billions of dollars, by actually expanding healthcare access in both rural and urban communities, all while maintaining high standards of quality care. Caravan Health has been leading the way in the world of ACO's and has become a model for others through its proven method that ‘makes the numbers work'. The numbers speak for themselves: 26k providers in their network, 300+ organizations, ~600k attributed Medicare lives, north of $100MM in total shared shaves (and projected to grow, as we learned from Tim in this episode), and 95% average MIPS (quality of care) score in 2019. Caravan has a suite of solutions and a unique onboarding process that can help new members better manage their patients and also tap into shared savings with greater success than perhaps any other ACO in the industry. This involves a combination nurse-led service delivery, focus on preventive care, tapping into new billing codes and 340b discounts, and a few other key elements in their recipe for success. We enjoyed speaking with Tim and learning more about ACO's - and hope you will too! ******** Check out the full episode on our MedTech Trends Youtube Channel here: https://youtu.be/8e_9WeXrZAg Find out more about the Caravan Health: https://caravanhealth.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/caravanhealth Facebook: https://www.linkedin.com/company/caravanhealth/ LinkedIn: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKOT5Its3ZWDpR4Ut5BMecg

Caravan Health helps clients align their efforts in three key areas: clinical needs, operational execution, and business realities. In this podcast Quint talks with Tim Gronniger, CEO of Caravan Health, who unveils his company's highly successful model for helping healthcare organizations thrive in an incredibly tough environment. His company shares the expertise and best practices clients need to navigate the complex Accountable Care Organization (ACO) system while reducing administrative risk and freeing themselves to do what they do best: practice patient care. Not only does Caravan help create the ACO, they stay with clients long-term and offer ongoing guidance. Tim explains how players of all sizes can better understand and leverage their data and implement survival strategies like sharing resources, expertise, and technology…while reaping the benefits of scale.

Today's episode is about how the Rural Risk-Free Solution helps rural hospitals and health systems take on risk faster to achieve value-based care. The methodology is a community / population health approach. By providing analytics on care metrics, nurse-led and team based care, and population health programs, you can improve outcomes for both communities and the hospitals. Today we have Lynn Barr here from Caravan Health to explain how it works.  Highlights from A Rural Risk-Free Solution The rural challenges of moving from cost-based reimbursement to value-based care. How consolidation is putting rural clinics at risk. We thought we were very high quality, we were the best. We were leading the country. And guess what happened? We reported our quality results. And we were the worst in the country. It was the first time we knew. Nobody had been gathering our data! The Rural ACO Turn Around Story The payment incentive system that is working against us. Build a support system around your doctors. It doesn't really take much time to fix this stuff. We beat the national averages by 2015. This isn't rocket science. It's just a bunch of work and it's hard to change. The ACO numbers game. BONUS: How will the COVID-19 pandemic effect ACOs? Lynn Barr, Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Caravan Health Lynn Barr is a recognized leader in the movement to transform and improve our nation's healthcare systems. While working at a rural hospital as Chief Information Officer, Lynn organized the National Rural Accountable Care Consortium to overcome barriers for rural health providers so they could participate in innovative payment models under healthcare reform. In 2014 Caravan Health was formed to provide turn-key services to providers interested in population health programs in Practice Transformation Networks, Medicare and Commercial Accountable Care Organizations, MACRA, Comprehensive Primary Care, and other payment models. As founder of Caravan Health, Ms. Barr has led the development and execution of nationwide programs that bring better care to patients and help health care providers achieve financial success. Caravan Health supports more than 13,000 primary care providers and 250 community hospitals making the transformation to value-based payments, with affordable, simple solutions that achieve outstanding results. Ms. Barr is a popular speaker and a frequent collaborator with government and national organizations looking to improve our healthcare systems. About Caravan Health Caravan Health was started by a forward-looking group of community hospital CEOs and physicians who recognized early on the many challenges they would face transforming to a value-based payment model. They were attracted to the emphasis on the patient and the focus on improving overall community health through operational improvements, staff development, community engagement, regional collaboration, and the effective utilization of useful information based on never-before-available data. Caravan Health is now a national leader of successful accountable care and population health programs for community health systems. Caravan helps physicians and hospitals work together to create, operate and manage successful population health programs that improve patient care, clinician satisfaction and financial performance. Links and Resources Caravan Website: https://caravanhealth.com/ About the Rura Risk-Free Solution for Rural ACO participants: https://caravanhealth.com/rural/ Am I Rural? Webpage for providers to determine if they qualify as rural: https://caravanhealth.com/am-i-rural/ See the Caravan Webinars page for more educational sessions and info https://caravanhealth.com/thought-leadership/webinars/ Twitter: @CaravanHealth Health Affairs: Payment Reform In Transition—Scaling ACOs For Success by Lynn Barr, Anna Loengard, LeeAnn Hastings and Tim Gronniger. Check out my new podcast collaboration with The Infection Prevention Strategy (TIPS): https://deepdive.tips/

Listen NowCurrently, CMS is accepting public comment on a proposed Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP), known more commonly as the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) program, rule.  The MSSP, created under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, is Medicare's flagship pay or performance program currently providing care to over 10 million Medicare beneficiaries.  MSSP or ACO performance, or to the extent the program has reduced Medicare spending growth, has been widely debated largely because CMS has failed to evaluate the program  Under this administration the program has come under substantial criticism.  The proposed rule, published this past August 17 in the Federal Register, is this administration's effort to improve the program's performance moreover by reducing the number of years an provider can participate in the program, from six years to two, without taking financial risk or participate in what are termed upside only contracts.  The administration argues absent financial risk providers do not fully engage in practice reforms to reduce spending.  This assumption is also widely debated.  Absent other substantial payment innovations, the success of the MSSP or ACO program is vital to the Medicare program, now forcasted to go bankrupt in 2026. During this 30 minute conversation Mr. Gronniger begins with a a brief overview of Caravan's work, he discusses or explains what success the ACO program has achieved to date and the program's background.  He moves onto discussing numerous elements of the proposed rule including earned shared savings percents, risk adjustment, aspects of financial benchmarking, low and high revenue ACOs, and beneficiary engagement and incentives, among others.     Mr. Tim Gronniger is currently the Senior Vice President of Development and Strategy at Caravan Health.  Previously, he served as Chief of Staff and Director of Delivery System Reform at CMS.  Previous to that, Mr. Gronniger  was Senior Adviser for Health Care Policy for the White House Domestic Policy Council.  Before that he served as senior professional staff to the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA, now retired).  Mr. Gronniger began his career in Washington, D.C. at the Congressional Budget Office where he studied or scored Medicare and Medicaid legislation.  Mr. Gronniger holds a Masters in Public Policy and Health Services Administration from the University of Michigan and a BA in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard. The proposed ACO rule is at: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/08/17/2018-17101/medicare-program-medicare-shared-savings-program-accountable-care-organizations-pathways-to-successFor information concerning Caravan Health go to: https://caravanhealth.com/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thehealthcarepolicypodcast.com