Key takeaways from the final MACRA rule, plus remaining challenges (Kavita Patel, Margaret Darling, Paul Ginsburg, Brookings)

https://www.brookings.edu/2016/12/15/key-takeaways-from-the-final-macra-rule-plus-remaining-challenges/

Solving surprise medical bills (Mark Hall, Paul Ginsburg, Steven M. Lieberman, Loren Adler, Caitlin Brandt, Margaret Darling, Brookings)

Imagine you walk into a hospital for a planned procedure, for example a knee operation to be performed by an orthopedic surgeon. Before you scheduled the surgery, you did your due diligence and confirmed that the surgeon performing the procedure participated in your insurance plan, and that the hospital where you were having the surgery was also in-network.

https://www.brookings.edu/research/solving-surprise-medical-bills/

The essential scan: Top findings in health policy research (Paul Ginsburg, Margaret Darling, Loren Adler, Brookings)

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2016/09/15/the-essential-scan-top-findings-in-health-policy-research/

How the money flows under MACRA (Kavita Patel, Loren Adler, Margaret Darling, Paul Ginsburg, Brookings)

The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, referred to most often as “MACRA,” set in motion a new approach to Medicare physician payment and replaced the oft-criticized Sustainable Growth Rate with two new payment schemes. In late April, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released many proposed details surrounding the law’s implementation; however, it is important to keep in mind that the final rule is still forthcoming and may incorporate significant changes in response to public comments made on the proposed rule.

http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2016/07/12-how-the-money-flows-under-macra-patel-adler-darling-ginsburg

CMMI's new Comprehensive Primary Care Plus: Its promise and missed opportunities (Paul Ginsburg, Margaret Darling, Kavita Patel, Brookings)

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI, or “the Innovation Center”) recently announced an initiative called Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+). It evolved from the Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) initiative, which began in 2012 and runs through the end of this year. Both initiatives are designed to promote and support primary care physicians in organizing their practices to deliver comprehensive primary care services. Comprehensive Primary Care Plus has some very promising components, but also misses some compelling opportunities to further advance payment for primary care services

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/health360/posts/2016/05/31-cmmi-new-comprehensive-primary-care-plus-ginsburg-darling-patel

Health care data as a public utility: how do we get there? (Mohit Kaushal, Margaret Darling, Brookings)

Forty-six million Americans use mobile fitness and health apps. Over half of providers serving Medicare or Medicaid patients are using electronic health records (EHRs). Despite such advances and proliferation of health data and its collection, we are not yet on an inevitable path to unleashing the often-promised “power of data” because data remain proprietary and fragmented among insurers, providers, health record companies, government agencies, and researchers

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/techtank/posts/2016/05/18-health-data-public-utility-kaushal-darling

Physician payment in Medicare is changing: Three highlights in the MACRA proposed rule that providers need to know (Kavita Patel, Margaret Darling, Caitlin Brandt, Paul Ginsburg, Brookings)

The passage of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) just over a year ago signaled a strong and unique bipartisan agreement to move towards value-based care, but until recently, many of the details surrounding how it would be implemented remained unknown. But last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Studies (CMS) released roughly 1,000 pages that shed more light on how physician payment will hopefully dramatically change for the better.

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/health360/posts/2016/05/04-three-highlights-in-the-macra-proposed-rule-providers-need-to-know-patel-darling-brandt-ginsburg

Something as simple and cheap as a checklist could help improve health care (Kavita Patel, Margaret Darling, Brookings)

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/health360/posts/2015/12/29-checklist-improve-health-care-patel-darling