Accountable Care

Providence Health in the northwest and Novant Health in the southeast are pushing population health, high technology and other options that are creating value and improving care.

Consumer-focused patients are changing everything about how they receive care, and to ignore that is to risk deep losses, panel says.

Reining in the costs for healthcare providers is more complicated than ever.

Trinity Health is set to expand its risk-based care operations, announcing last week that it will partner with Heritage Provider Network to form accountable care networks linking Trinity’s 86 hospitals with the 37,000 physicians in league with Heritage.

The agreement, effective Jan. 1, aims to give Humana Medicare Advantage members better care and lower costs at Aurora's health network.

Managed care organization Health Net Inc. said this week that it has formed an accountable care organization with John Muir Health, bringing together a network of medical centers and physicians to cover three counties in California.

Walgreens said it is cutting ties with two accountable care organizations, though the nation's largest pharmacy chain has also launched a new partnership on the West Coast to help manage ACO patients.

When Healthcare Finance last year asked experts to name the top industry trends, they selected insurance exchanges, mergers and acquisitions, new payment models, and technology. Things don't look much different in 2015.