Last month, representatives from North Carolina medical groups that participate in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) came together at the NCMS Center for Leadership in Medicine in Raleigh to share their successes and the challenges they face as they strive to move to a value-based model of care within the MSSP. The group calls itself the NC MSSP Council and meets twice a year.
At the Council’s Nov. 19 meeting, Mission Health Partners gave an overview of their experiences as part of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) MSSP. The goal of the MSSP is to facilitate coordination and cooperation among providers to improve the quality of care for Medicare beneficiaries and reduce unnecessary costs. The Shared Savings Program will reward Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) that lower their growth in health care costs while meeting performance standards on quality of care and putting patients first.
Mission Health described their process of forming an ACO and their experiences in the MSSP. The bottom line, according to Amanda Gerlach, Mission Health’s Director of Operations, was that “this is the best thing for patients.”
The NC MSSP Council represents a diverse group from across the state, each with a different set of opportunities and challenges within their communities. Some issues are common to each organization including physician buy-in, effective data sharing and analytics and care coordination. Discussion is lively and often members leave with new insights and ideas gleaned from other members’ experiences.
The Council also heard from Sheree Vodicka, executive director of the NC Alliance of YMCAs about ways to partner with community Y’s to help patients stay fit as well as manage chronic conditions like diabetes. See the slides from this presentation.
The NC MSSP Council is a subset of the NC ACO Collaborative, a larger group that includes ACOs and other interested organizations from across the state. The next NC ACO Collaborative meeting will be held March 3, 2016 in Raleigh. If you are interested in learning more, please contact Melanie Phelps at the North Carolina Medical Society, 919-833-3836.
