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Executive Summary

The healthcare industry is undergoing a significant transformation, moving away from volume-based care towards value-based models that prioritize patient outcomes and cost efficiency. This issue brief delves into delta MLR contracting, a type of value-based contracting that measures and rewards improved performance based upon incremental improvements in medical loss ratio. 

Delta MLR contracting is the next chapter on the way to full risk delegation, aiming to improve medical loss ratios by reducing unnecessary utilization through innovative tech-enabled care delivery transformations and offering the potential for future revenue increases for providers who achieve improved quality and appropriately document and code clinical conditions for accurate risk adjustment.

Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) refers to the percentage of premiums payers spend on medical claims and healthcare quality improvement, as opposed to administrative costs and profits. Delta MLR contracting presents an innovative framework for population health providers and virtual care organizations to align to the clinical and operational value created for risk bearing entities. Below we discuss the necessary emphasis in delta MLR contracting on the integration of documentation and coding practices, data, actuarial analytics, quality initiatives, and medical management. We also focus on the need for full financial alignment of virtual care solutions and risk bearing entities in achieving the Quintuple Aim.

By focusing on these elements, innovative providers can enhance patient outcomes, optimize financial performance, and navigate the complexities of value-based care more effectively. Continue Reading Delta MLR Contracting: Integrating Risk, Quality and Affordability

On October 27, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in collaboration with Health Canada, and the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), published Guiding Principles for the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) in medical devices.   The principles are designed to support good machine learning practices (GMLP) and to help promote safe, effective, and high-quality medical devices that use AI/ML. The FDA is accepting public comment on these principles on an ongoing basis.
Continue Reading FDA Publishes Principles for AI and ML in Medical Devices

Last week, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized long-awaited regulations on Interoperability and Patient Access (the “CMS Rule”) to require Medicare Advantage plans, Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) managed care plans, state agencies, and Qualified Health Plan (QHP) issuers on federally-facilitated exchanges (“CMS Payers”) to provide patients easy access to their claims and encounter information, as well as certain clinical information, through third-party applications of their choice. On the same day, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology finalized its rules on Interoperability, Information Blocking, and the ONC Health IT Certification Program (the “ONC Rule”) related to the 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act). The CMS Rule and ONC Rule have far-reaching impacts.

As individuals and organizations covered by the rules are considering how they may facilitate their access to health information to support patients, health care providers, and others, it is important to understand when provisions in the rules will be effective and timing and what acts may constitute violations of these rules.  To help clients get familiar with these deadlines, we are providing this summary chart of compliance requirements and applicable deadlines to help your organization prepare for upcoming enforcement of the ONC Rule and the CMS Rule.  For legal advice tailored to the specific needs of your organization, please reach out to Jodi Daniel, head of the firm’s Digital Health Practice at jdaniel@crowell.com.

As you read the chart, you should keep the following in mind:Continue Reading Compliance Reference Chart for ONC and CMS Interoperability Rules

Crowell & Moring has released Litigation Forecast 2020: What Corporate Counsel Need to Know for the Coming Year. The eighth-annual Forecast provides forward-looking insights from leading Crowell & Moring lawyers to help legal departments anticipate and respond to challenges that might arise in the year ahead.

For 2020, the Forecast focuses on how the …

WANT TO KNOW HOW THE DOJ’S BRAND MEMO MAY GIVE HEALTH CARE CONTRACTORS A NEW AVENUE OF DEFENSE IN FCA LITIGATION? READ “DOJ: PUTTING LIMITS ON GUIDANCE” TO FIND OUT

Crowell & Moring has issued its seventh-annual “Litigation Forecast 2019: What Corporate Counsel Need to Know for the Coming Year.” 

The …

  • More of our health information is becoming digital every day, as new technology companies enter the health care and wellness markets.
  • Many companies that hold a wealth of consumer health information are not covered by HIPAA.
  • Many consumers may not realize that their health information only is protected and they only have certain rights with respect to that information when it is held by certain entities, but not when it is held by others.
  • The private sector should work with regulators to develop a common sense, appropriate framework for use of health information by non-HIPAA covered entities.

As we await proposed HHS regulations on interoperability and patient access to data, and as more companies than ever before are collecting and using data to power advanced data analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to improve health care quality and delivery, it is important to understand the scope and limitation of protections and the applicability of the HIPAA Privacy Rule.

Patients, providers and caregivers now have access to a wide array of devices and applications to manage and track patient health, improve treatment adherence, and better coordinate care. Large technology companies, athletic gear manufacturers, and others are entering a rapidly growing consumer health technology market. They are developing new technologies including tracking apps, wearables, and social networks that are increasingly integrated into patients’ daily lives. With an estimated 86.7 million U.S. consumers owning wearable devices by 2019, patients are generating billions of data points that provide insight into their health. Yet many of these companies are not subject to existing privacy protections under HIPAA, creating a significant gap in consumer protections.

At the same time, HHS is pushing for greater interoperability and patient access to data to address a challenge that remains widespread even after the investment of billions of federal dollars into the adoption of electronic health records. Agencies are encouraging and mandating easier availability of electronic health data, through current and anticipated CMS and ONC regulations and through a variety of government initiatives such as: 1) Blue Button and MyHealtheData; 2) incentivizing the adoption of open APIs; 3) developing new fee-for-service payment policies regarding remote monitoring and virtual care reimbursement; and 4) launching Sync for Science, a technical standard for facilitating patient-mediated data exchange for research. Consumers and companies alike seek guidance on the implications of collecting, storing, maintaining, and commercializing personal health data.
Continue Reading Closing the Health Information Privacy Divide

Crowell & Moring has issued its “Litigation Forecast 2018: What Corporate Counsel Need to Know for the Coming Year.”

 The health care section of the Forecast, “FCA Enforcement: Different, But Still Here,” outlines how health care companies should expect continued enforcement of the False Claims Act, but with perhaps different emphasis …

If you are a technology company developing products for the health market, you have probably heard about and maybe even been “warned” about HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). If you are asking, “How can I avoid complying with HIPAA?” you might be asking the wrong question. Health care is almost 20 percent of the U.S. economy and craving the kind of innovation that technology companies can bring. Leaders in the health care space, like those at AcademyHealth, are pushing for changes to the health system to achieve better care, smarter spending, and healthier people. And they can’t do it without your help.

Compliance with HIPAA opens up new business opportunities, and, in an age of data breaches and privacy concerns, it can set you apart as a company that cares about protecting the information you have about your customers and the patients/clients of those you work with.

Recently, AcademyHealth facilitated a Health Data Innovator Privacy and Security Workshop supported by the California Health Care Foundation. As a featured speaker at the workshop, I’ve pulled out some of the key insights around when and how HIPAA might apply to those working in digital health.

Does HIPAA Apply to My Work?

Maybe.  HIPAA does not apply to all health data.  It depends on who collects or maintains the data and the relationships with HIPAA covered entities or business associates.

Generally, HIPAA applies to health data collected or maintained by those in the traditional health care space, including health plans and most health care providers (such as doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, and labs) and those doing business on behalf of these entities (such as a billing company or a cloud storage provider (CSP)).  However, if the same data is held by the consumer or by a product or company that has a relationship only with the consumer, then it is not covered by HIPAA, although other federal laws may apply. Typically, technology companies will be business associates working with clients that are covered health care providers or health plans.
Continue Reading Bringing Innovative Technology to Healthcare…What about HIPAA?

Barsky

Yesterday, our colleague Troy A. Barsky testified before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee led by Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and provided recommendations for modernizing the Stark Law to regulate self-referrals without impeding the care coordination and value-based payment models promoted by health care reform legislation. Other witnesses before the Committee included Dr. Ronald A. Paulus…