Our Senior Vice President Robert Minkin was recently interviewed by Becker’s Hospital Review on best practices for bundled pricing. 

From Becker’s Hospital Review:

Healthcare reform has created an impetus for hospitals and other healthcare providers to work together to provide more efficient, higher quality care. These efforts are likely to take many forms, and the use of bundled payments specifically for acute-care episodes is almost certain to be among them as it is already being piloted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Bundled payments provide global payments rather than fee-for-service payments, typically for a certain episode of care, and most bundled payment programs allow for gainsharing among providers of any savings created.   

Read the full article here:  http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-physician-relationships/3-best-practices-for-bundled-pricing-from-cms-ace-demonstration-project-participants.html

The passage of healthcare reform helps bundled payments gain momentum as a viable reimbursement strategy. Rapidly following the lead of the Centers for  Medicare and Medicaid Services, commercial payers are demonstrating heightened interest in bundling payments to providers to try and bend the cost curve. Here are six critical success factors to bundled payments that every “C-Suite” executive needs to consider.

Click here for the full article by Ms. Baggot, former administrator of the cardiac and vascular institute at Exempla Saint Joseph in Denver, Colorado, where she played a key role in helping the hospital win the bid to be selected as an Acute Care Episode (ACE) cardiovascular services bundled payment pilot program — one of four in the nation. She subsequently developed and managed these services, achieving both cost savings and improvement in quality.

Los Angeles, California, September 1, 2010 — The Camden Group, one of the nation’s leading healthcare business advisory firms, continues to expand the firm’s expertise and resources to assist clients in response to healthcare reform with the addition of Deirdre M. Baggot, RN, MBA as vice president.   Ms. Baggot served as the administrator of the cardiac and vascular institute at Exempla Saint Joseph in Denver, Colorado, where she played a key role in helping the hospital win the bid to be selected as an Acute Care Episode (ACE) cardiovascular services bundled payment pilot program –one of four in the nation.   She subsequently developed and managed these services, achieving both cost savings and improvement in quality.   This news follows the announcement in May that the former CEO of Exempla Saint Joseph, Robert A. Minkin, has joined The Camden Group as well.

 “Our clients will really benefit from Deirdre’s expertise in designing and implementing bundled payments – from applying to be a CMS pilot site or more immediately, reaching out to commercial payers to bundle payments,”  said Steve Valentine, president of The Camden Group.   “We’re definitely seeing more and more commercial payers interested in bundling payments as a way to bend the cost curve, and for many hospitals, this is an opportunity they can’t afford to miss.”

In light of healthcare reform, The Camden Group has been rapidly growing its thought leadership team this past year by adding several senior members to the firm, including James Smith [formerly with Greater Rochester Independent Practice Association (“GRIPA”) and Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield), as well as seeking affiliation with innovative entities to provide clients access to industry-changing organizations.  These include GRIPA, one of the first in the nation to receive a favorable advisory opinion from the FTC on their clinical integration program, and Healthcare Partners, LLC, which operates as an accountable care organization with physician networks serving over 1,000,000 patients nationwide, including over 140,000 Medicare Advantage and 600,000 commercially insured members.

“Healthcare reform both poses new challenges to healthcare executives and tremendous opportunity to be at the forefront of re-engineering our healthcare delivery system,” said Baggot.  “The Camden Group has an excellent reputation for success with their clients, and I am thrilled to join the team at such an exciting and pivotal time for our industry.”

Prior to joining Exempla Saint Joseph Hospital in 2005, Ms. Baggot worked for ten years in academic healthcare, first at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and later at The University of Michigan Health System in strategic and leadership roles.

About The Camden Group

With offices in California, Illinois, and New York, The Camden Group is one of the nation’s leading healthcare business advisory firms. The firm provides a broad array of healthcare consulting services in areas ranging from strategic and business planning and financial advisory and compliance, to hospital operations improvement, hospital/physician alignment, clinical integration, and developing accountable care organizations. Since its founding in 1970, The Camden Group has advised more than 1,000 hospitals, medical groups, outpatient facilities, and other healthcare organizations nationwide. For more information, visit us online at www.thecamdengroup.com.  

Contact:

Sarita Choy, Marketing/Communications Director

The Camden Group

310.320.3990

schoy@thecamdengroup.com

www.thecamdengroup.com

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 Robert A. Minkin, former CEO of Exempla Saint Joseph Hospital, to serve as senior advisor to consulting firm

Los Angeles, California, May 18, 2010—The Camden Group, one of the nation’s leading healthcare business advisory firms, today announced that it is adding Robert A. Minkin, former CEO of Denver-based Exempla Saint Joseph Hospital, to its growing team of healthcare industry experts.  In recent months, The Camden Group has been steadily expanding its senior leadership team to better serve its clients, particularly in light of changes anticipated with healthcare reform.   Minkin will focus on assisting hospitals and health systems explore and undertake the bundled payment model for their service lines to demonstrate greater value while managing costs.

Under Minkin’s leadership as president and CEO, Exempla Saint Joseph won the bid to participate in a three-year CMS Acute Care Episode (“ACE”) demonstration project to “bundle” payments to hospitals and physicians.   Exempla Saint Joseph is one of four hospitals with cardiac programs to participate in the pilot demonstration.

 “Bob Minkin is one of only a handful of people who really understands how to implement bundled payments to create value for an organization and its patients,” said Steve Valentine, president of The Camden Group.  “His firsthand experience and unparalleled expertise will help guide our clients to succeed in this new era for healthcare.”

This recent news follows The Camden Group’s announcement earlier this year that James R. Smith, FACHE, the former CEO of Greater Rochester Independent Physicians Association (“GRIPA”) and Regional President of Excellus BlueCross BlueShield for the Central New York region, joined the firm to lead its new office in Rochester, New York.  As senior vice president, Smith heads up the firm’s advisory services related to clinical integration and developing accountable care organizations.   GRIPA was one of the first in the nation to receive a favorable advisory opinion from the FTC on their clinical integration program.

“The Camden Group is very well-respected and has a long history of success with their clients,” said Minkin.  “I am thrilled to have this opportunity to help provide innovative solutions to the challenges hospitals and health systems are currently facing.  The healthcare industry is rapidly changing, and there are many opportunities for visionary organizations to succeed. The Camden Group can help those organizations get there. ”  

Prior to Exempla Saint Joseph Hospital, Minkin served as the chief operating officer and executive vice president for St. Joseph Hospital, a 448-bed tertiary care medical center in Orange, California.   He also served as CEO for Desert Hospital in Palm Springs, California for eight years.   Additionally, Minkin has held senior positions at other healthcare facilities, including Riverside Community Hospital, Riverside, California; Memorial Hospitals Association, Modesto, California; Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco, California; and Community Hospital of Santa Rosa, Santa Rosa, California.

About The Camden Group

With offices in California, Illinois, and New York, The Camden Group is one of the nation’s leading healthcare business advisory firms. The firm provides a broad array of healthcare consulting services in areas ranging from strategic and business planning and financial advisory and compliance, to hospital operations improvement, hospital/physician alignment, clinical integration, and developing accountable care organizations. Since its founding in 1970, The Camden Group has advised more than 1,000 hospitals, medical groups, outpatient facilities, and other healthcare organizations nationwide. For more information, visit us online at www.TheCamdenGroup.com.

Contact:

Sarita Choy, Marketing/Communications Coordinator

The Camden Group

310.320.3990

schoy@thecamdengroup.com

www.thecamdengroup.com