All posts by Jo Surpin

March 2016 Presentations to Focus on Gainsharing’s Links to Performance Improvement

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This March we will see gainsharing take center stage at two regional HFMA meetings, as well as presenting a poster at ACHE Congress.  The events demonstrate the power of aligning the incentives of physicians and hospitals to drive physician engagement necessary to succeed under value based payment systems.  The educational sessions will present case studies that show how organizations use gainsharing to not just reduce internal costs, but to improve quality.

On March 22, at HFMA Central Pennsylvania Chapter 10th Annual Hospital and Physician Collaborative at the Lancaster Convention Center in Lancaster, PA, I’ll be co-presenting with April Venable, Director of Population Health at Inspira Health Network (Vineland, NJ).  Inspira needed to engage their physicians as they prepared Read More

Autumn 2015 Gainsharing Presentations Reflect Industry Interest

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In autumn, the normally frenetic activity of hospitals and health systems accelerates into high gear. Autumn is also marked by major conferences as executive teams “harvest” for new ideas. That’s appropriate as autumn used to be known as “harvest” before the dawn of the Industrial Revolution when the population moved to cities!

Gainsharing was prominently featured on the conference circuit this year.  With 5 states in various stages of implementation of the AMS Performance Based Incentive System, there is much interest in the success of gainsharing.  We presented at regional, national, and international conferences, and university programs in healthcare management.  Needless to say. I’m very proud that our organization is changing healthcare by lowering costs while improving quality and outcomes.  It’s gratifying to see this interest.

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AHA Trustee Magazine “Two Paths to Savings” includes Gainsharing and Shared Savings

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In the March 2015 edition of the American Hospital Association’s Trustee magazine, AMS VP Anthony Stanowski and I authored “Two Paths to Savings”.  The article reviews the relationship between shared savings programs (ACOs, Bundled Payment Programs, and Patient Centered Medical Homes) and gainsharing programs.  Four basic questions that trustees and hospital executives wrestle are examined:
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Inpatient Gainsharing as Part of a Medicare ACO

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Inpatient Gainsharing as Part of a Medicare ACO

We have written about the distinction between shared savings (used in ACOs and Bundled Payments) and gainsharing 6 essential differences between gainsharing and shared savings programs:  Under shared savings, Medicare gives back a portion of the money it has saved through reduced payments to providers.  Gainsharing, on the other hand, is a tool that enables providers to respond to the challenge of cost reduction by becoming more efficient.  As many of our clients have pointed out, the AMS Gainsharing Program has proven to be an effective strategy to achieve the physician engagement that is critical to the success of an ACO.  They have told us that implementing an ACO requires profound change in the culture of health care institutions and provider practice:  To succeed over time, providers must make daily decisions based on efficiency and effectiveness, not on volume – of patients, procedures or services.  So gainsharing can provide the foundation of, and the stepping stone to, other initiatives, like an ACO.

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Lessons Learned from a Hospital-Physician Gainsharing Program

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This month, hfm Magazine explores “Lessons Learned from a Hospital-Physician Gainsharing Program, examining the experiences of the New Jersey Hospital Association, the Greater New York Hospital Association, and their member hospitals. NJHA’s SVP Sean Hopkins, AMS VP Anthony Stanowski, and I discuss the leadership lessons learned using the 8-step process for leading change advanced in the seminal 1996 book, Leading Change by Dr. John Kotter, Emeritus Professor of Harvard Business School.

By documenting the key lessons learned from the associations that administered gainsharing programs and the hospitals that implemented them, we hope that this article provides guidance to health care providers not just in implementing gainsharing programs, but also as they undergo the change management process for other forms of alternative payment systems.

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