Fall 2016 issue of Horizons

HEALTHCARE

This is a growth of 68.0% in employment. Even while the economy experienced a recession, the senior living industry added over 84,000 jobs between 2007 and 2014. This positive growth is expected to continue in the upcoming years. Data Analytics and Value-Based Care A major trend in healthcare is a move toward paying providers based on value instead of simply providing services (often referred to as fee for service). Under a value-based care model, hospitals and other providers are paid according to the value of service they provide. Measuring the value is difficult and therefore various metrics and programs are being developed to assess physician performance against benchmarks to determine how much value is being provided in each instance. It is expected that, ultimately, the value- based system will improve care and bring costs down, but healthcare providers are still struggling to adapt to the change.

In 2015, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) was passed which was a bipartisan agreement to move towards a value-based system of care. The MACRA Act would create a new approach to paying clinicians for the value and quality of care that they provide. At the time of the act’s passage nearly a year ago, it was unknown how it would be implemented or the exact details of how it would work. On April 27, 2016, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to implement its key provisions. The proposed rule would implement the changes through a framework referred to as the “Quality Payment Program” which includes two paths; the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) or the Advanced Alternative Payment Models. In a July 2016 U.S. Senate Committee on Finance hearing on the MACRA Act, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Acting Administrator, Andy Slavitt, left open the possibility that the new changes set to overhaul physician payments could be pushed back from the intended start date of January 2017. There is great concern around the current timeline and physician groups are requesting pushing back the start date for at least six months to ensure that physicians can get help and experience before the start of the program. Just recently, the Department of Health and Human Services announced new funding of approximately $20 million each year over the next five years to support training and education for clinicians in individual or small group practices. Consolidation in the Industry Consolidation within the healthcare industry is another trend that is likely to continue in upcoming years. In the past year,

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