Hospitals and providers aiming to achieve high-quality outcomes at lower costs should team up with health insurers in collaborative arrangements to ensure a successful shift to value-based care, according to Angie Meoli, Aetna's senior vice president of network strategy and provider experience. Health systems and hospitals that have engaged in capitated payment models and other value-based care agreements generally fared better financially during the pandemic than providers in fee-for-service models, Meoli noted.

Adopting clinically focused cost strategies beyond care coordination and population health can help accountable care organizations (ACOs) achieve stronger savings potential, according to Roji Health Intelligence CEO Theresa Hush. To do so, ACOs must leverage clinical data that can help identify cost drivers and reveal clinical improvements; support data sharing arrangements and collaborations between primary and specialty care practices; and develop care plans based on the ACO patient population and risks.

Signify Health is rolling out its Transition to Home program in over 50 hospitals to provide evidence-based clinical and social care coordination services to Medicare beneficiaries to help them transition from hospital to home. The program, which currently supports patients in 10 states, provides services such as risk stratification, social needs and behavior health assessment, and medication review delivered by an interdisciplinary team of clinical and social care coordinators, physicians, nurses and pharmacists, who also coordinate care with the beneficiary's primary care provider.

Anthem announced that it will invest $87.9 million to fund 1,139 affordable housing units in 11 Indiana communities. "Particularly in this time, homelessness continues to be a critical component in addressing the whole health of individuals, families and communities," said Kimberly Roop, the company's Medicaid plan president in Indiana.

A presentation at the American Society for Preventive Cardiology Congress on CVD Prevention noted that in a study of 20 internal medicine residents, cardiac rehabilitation referrals for eligible patients rose after the residents received a lecture and information on the subject. Presenter Dr. Maggie Wang said referral rates tend to be low despite the fact that cardiac rehabilitation has been shown to reduce cardiovascular mortality and hospitalization rates.

Mayo Clinic topped US News & World Report's Best Hospitals Honor Roll rankings for a sixth consecutive year. Cleveland Clinic, UCLA Medical Center, Johns Hopkins Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital rounded out the top five.

Gastroenterologists and fellows at an academic medical center were able to review patient records in an average of 10.5 minutes when using an artificial intelligence tool that extracts EHR data, compared with an average of 12.8 minutes per record without the tool, researchers reported in JAMA Network Open. The study participants had to answer 22 questions about clinically relevant data in the records, and those who used the AI tool had an accuracy of 83.7%, compared with 86.0% in the control group.

The Advanced Safe Testing at Residence Telehealth Act of 2021, which aims to expand the use of remote patient monitoring, telehealth, digital therapeutics and other connected health programs, was introduced in the US House of Representatives by Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz. The bill would create value-based demonstration programs in Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Artificial intelligence tools might help patients understand clinical notes in their EHRs in the absence of guidance from their health care provider, researchers reported in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. Patients who used the NoteAid tool, which defines medical jargon when the cursor hovers over a word, had significantly higher health literacy scores than patients who didn't use the AI tool.

A survey by the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health found that 39% of parents of youths ages 12 to 18 said their child had already received a COVID-19 vaccine, 21% said that it is likely their child will get a vaccine, while 40% said they were unlikely to get a vaccine. The survey, involving over 2,000 parents, also showed that 38% of parents with low incomes said their child is likely to get a vaccine, compared with 60% of those with higher incomes.

A study in the journal Maturitas found that white post-menopausal women with type 2 diabetes but no obesity had an elevated risk for developing kidney cancer. However, the findings, based on data from 36,975 women, also showed that the link between type 2 diabetes and kidney cancer risk weakened after the analysis was adjusted for factors like body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, hypertension, alcohol intake and diuretic use.

Researchers found that rural residence and living long distances from the reporting hospital were linked to later stage diagnoses and lower survival among adolescents and young adults with cancer. The findings were published in Cancer.

At AHIP's National Conference on Medicare, Medicaid & Dual Eligibles Online (Sept. 21 through 24), explore the policy, regulatory, and operational issues powering health care's transformation. Together, we'll tackle such topics how to better serve Medicaid members with insecure housing and promoting health equity through quality improvement and value-based care. Only AHIP can deliver content of this caliber. Register today.

White papers and case studies submitted by our Affiliate Organizations (AOs) bring you the latest thinking on current topics in health care. This week's features include Blue Eagle Consulting on choosing a health IT partner; BVK on their brand + demand strategy; Wolters Kluwer on natural language processing; and Ovia Health on behavioral interventions to encourage healthier mothers and babies.