New York

A federally-funded experimental program in regional collaboration between health care providers and insurance companies has been extended through the end of 2016, Adirondack Health Institute announced.

Extension of the five-year-old Adirondack Medical Home program, which originally was to end Dec. 31, 2014, will bring an estimated $1.68 million in additional federal funding to the program, said Barbara Iverson, a spokeswoman for Adirondack Health Institute, a regional health care planning agency based in Glens Falls.

New York's top insurance regulator says most health insurance in the state pays hospitals and doctors for each service regardless of quality, efficiency or outcome, and his staff will try to encourage alternatives to reduce costs and improve health.

Department of Financial Services Superintendent Ben Lawsky says their recent survey shows every major insurer in New York's commercial market is making some effort at payment reform, like "pay-for-performance" or pay-per-member fees for health care.

However, the pilot projects account for less than 15 percent of payments.

As healthcare reform takes hold across the nation, primary care physicians are preparing for the shift to value-based payment by including risk-adjusted base payment in their payment models. Among other goals, these models aim to cover the additional costs associated with keeping people well, beyond merely treating disease, and aligning payment with expected use of resources.

New Jersey taxpayers could save hundreds of millions of dollars a year and thousands of patients could have improved health and better quality of life if clinicians coordinated physical and mental health care, a new Rutgers University study says.

The report, produced by the Center for State Health Policy, found that more than a third of the $880 million in hospitalization costs in the 13 communities it studied were associated with behavioral health issues such as mental health disorders and substance use.

Right care, right place, right time.

Ask any health policy wonk what modern health care is supposed to be about, and the person will recite that mantra.

The goal is to provide people with the appropriate level of care where it makes the most sense and without overly delaying treatment. The policy folks will say this "triple aim" is the key to reducing costs and improving quality.

Weill Cornell Physicians, Cornell University’s physician group, has inked a new accountable care agreement with Aetna, intended to enhance care for approximately 9,000 of the insurer's commercial and Medicare members in New York.

“This collaboration will add to the effort of aligning our Weill Cornell faculty with the Triple Aim of improving quality, lowering costs and performing population-health management,” said Michael Wolk, MD, chair of the Weill Cornell Physicians’ Managed Care Committee, in a press release.