Category: Healthcare Industry News
Caring for High-Need, High-Cost Patients—An Urgent Priority
Date: August 12th, 2016Source: The Commonwealth FundTopics: Population Health, Value-Based Care, HealthcareMeaningful improvement in the health system will require improvement in care for those patients using it the most: people with multiple chronic conditions. Within this clinically diverse group are patients who remain stable for years with appropriate treatment, others who live with extreme functional limitations, and still others with persistent behavioral health challenges or related social needs, like housing or food, that exacerbate their conditions. Care for these high-need, high-cost patients is expensive: despite comprising just 5 percent of the U.S. population, they account for 50 percent of the nation’s annual health care spending.
Read MoreEHR Use Fuels Research, Interventions to Close Gaps in Care
Date: August 11th, 2016Source: EHR IntelligenceTopics: EHRs, Population HealthIn a paper recently published in Health Affairs, researchers detail inequities in quality healthcare and discuss the methods by which providers can overcome those inequities. At the forefront of that research is robust EHR use to help manage key population data.
Read MoreACO's integration of behavioral health yields 13% decrease in ED visits, study finds
Date: August 11th, 2016Source: Healthcare DiveTopics: Behavioral Health, Accountable Care, Patient CareThe integration of behavioral health services into patients’ regular primary care source can help accountable care organizations (ACOs) improve the efficiency of their delivery systems, suggested a new study published in Health Affairs.
Read MoreOffice-Based Docs Lag in Outward Health Information Exchange
Date: August 10th, 2016Source: HealthIT InteroperabilityTopics: HIE, InteroperabilityWhile office-based physicians are making progress in adopting certified electronic health records (EHR) systems, only about a third electronically shared patient health information with external providers in 2014, according to a new data brief released by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).
Read MoreFocus on value drives collaboration between postacute care providers, hospitals
Date: August 10th, 2016Source: Health Leaders MediaTopics: Hospital Readmissions, Long-Term Care, Transitions of CareWhether hospitals and health systems plan to own postacute providers or not, how your organization interacts with them after discharge will play an ever more critical role in both clinical and financial outcomes.
Read MoreCommunity health centers get $90M for IT buys
Date: July 26th, 2016Source: Health Data ManagementTopics: HIE, EHRs, Health IT, Rural HealthcareThe Bureau of Primary Health Care within the Health Resources and Services Administration later this year will start disbursing $90 million in grant funds to about 1,380 health center award recipients transitioning to value-based models of care who will need new IT tools.
Read MoreHealth care organizations 114 times more likely to be ransomware victims than financial firms
Date: July 26th, 2016Source: CSOTopics: Data SecurityHealth care organizations were 114 times more likely to hit by ransomware infections than financial firms, and 21 times more likely than educational institutions, according to a new research report by Solutionary.
Read MoreAdvanced EHR Use Shows Potential to Lower Patient Costs
Date: July 20th, 2016Source: EHR IntelligenceTopics: EHRs, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid ServicesResearch shows that patients at advanced EHR use hospitals cost on average $730 less than those at other hospitals. Advanced EHR use may lead to significant per patient savings, showing promise for an eventual return on investment, shows a study published in the American Journal of Managed Care.
Read MoreMeasuring Interoperability: Listening and Learning
Date: July 13th, 2016Source: HIE AnswersTopics: HIE, MACRA, InteroperabilityBased on internal analysis, external feedback, and MACRA’s specific definitions of “widespread interoperability” and the relevant population to be measured, we have identified two measures in particular that satisfy both the feedback we received and MACRA’s specific parameters
Read MoreHealthcare spending growth rate rises again in 2015
Date: July 13th, 2016Source: Modern HealthcareTopics: Health Plans, HealthcareGovernment agencies, companies and consumers spent a lot more on healthcare in 2015 than the prior year. It's another result of the U.S. reducing its uninsured rate to historic lows through healthcare reform, which has spurred demand for more hospital services, clinic visits and prescription drugs.
Read MoreWhat Clinical Quality Measures Mean to Healthcare Providers
Date: July 7th, 2016Source: EHR IntelligenceTopics: EHRs, Meaningful Use, MACRA, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid ServicesThroughout the healthcare landscape, providers and hospitals must navigate various different incentive programs and quality improvement programs, with which come numerous requirements for clinical quality measures.
Read MoreValue-Based Care to Spur New Population Health Management Tools
Date: June 22nd, 2016Source: HealthIT AnalyticsTopics: HIE, EHRs, Population Health, Value-Based CareValue-based care and risk-based reimbursement contracts will continue to be a catalyst for the development and implementation of innovative population health management tools, according to a new report from Frost & Sullivan.
Read MoreWhat Is EHR Optimization, How Does It Start?
Date: June 21st, 2016Source: EHR IntelligenceTopics: EHRs, Transformation Support ServicesSo much of the focus of an EHR implementation is on the go-live and plenty of hustle and bustle precedes a practice's launch of a new EHR technology. However, the digital journey has only just begun at that point and what follows to sustain EHR adoption and use is known as EHR optimization.
Read MoreValue-Based Reimbursement Set to Eclipse FFS
Date: June 17th, 2016Source: Health Leaders MediaTopics: Value-Based Care, Accountable CareThe adoption of value-based reimbursement models is fast-paced and expected to dwarf the fee-for-service model by 2020, survey data shows.
Read MorePhysicians struggle to get timely data, and patient care suffers
Date: June 17th, 2016Source: Health Data ManagementTopics: HIE, EHRs, InteroperabilityDespite widespread use of electronic health records, a recent survey has found gaps in how information flows between clinicians and also between physicians and their patients.
Read MoreCare Coordination Improves Outcomes for Dual Eligible Patients
Date: June 16th, 2016Source: HealthIT AnalyticsTopics: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Care Coordination, Accountable CareCMS has announced that dually eligible Medicare and Medicaid patients face better outcomes because of integrated health plans that promote care coordination between the programs.
Read MoreLack of patient data, quality measures slowing shift to value-based care
Date: June 15th, 2016Source: Healthcare DiveTopics: Value-Based Care, Accountable Care, Quality Improvement64% of providers and payers said doctors don’t have the necessary tools to succeed in a value-based care model. And 85% of doctors said they would likely or very likely use a tool that provides real-time, on-demand patient-specific data to identify gaps in quality, risk and utilization.
Read MoreAll Roads Lead to Population Health Management
Date: June 13th, 2016Source: Hospitals & Health NetworksTopics: EHRs, Health IT, Value-Based Care, Accountable CareApproximately 750 accountable care organizations are in operation today, covering some 23.5 million lives covered under Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers. Although still in the learning stages, many ACOs have had notable success in improving quality while reducing cost. As promising results continue to emerge, more of these organizations — whose existence was once thought to be more fantasy than reality — are expected. In fact, Leavitt Partners predicts that 105 million people will be covered by ACOs by 2020.
Read MoreHow Will MACRA Legislation Affect Small Physician Practices?
Date: June 13th, 2016Source: EHR IntelligenceTopics: MACRA, Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)Some small physician practices could struggle with the impending MACRA implementation, and their concerns are palpable, a survey finds.
Read MoreStudies tout progress toward value-based reimbursement
Date: June 13th, 2016Source: Healthcare DiveTopics: Health IT, Value-Based Care, Accountable CareValue-based reimbursement is the talk of the town. In March, HHS announced the agency reached its goal of tying 30% of Medicare payments to alternative payment models valuing quality over quantity of care. The agency attributes the figure (ahead of its year-end goal) to changes made via the ACA. Additionally, HHS’ sister organization CMS highlighted last week how Aetna has set a goal to have 75% of its spending to go through value-based contracts by 2020. While some have given a side-eye to that projection, it does speak to the rallied efforts backing behind value-based reimbursement (VBR).
Read MoreFHIR’s normative stage only months away; EHR vendors planning to use it
Date: June 10th, 2016Source: Health Data ManagementTopics: EHRs, Interoperability, FHIRIndustry stakeholders are starting to see light at the end of the interoperability tunnel, as major electronic health record vendors look to incorporate HL7’s emerging Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard in their products.
Read MoreSurvey shows nearly all U.S. hospitals using certified EHRs
Date: June 1st, 2016Source: Health Management TechnologyTopics: EHRs, InteroperabilityAccording to data from a new survey to be released today at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s (ONC) 2016 Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., nearly all of the nation’s hospitals have adopted certified electronic health records (EHRs).
Read MoreResearchers Affirm Long-term Value of Health Coaching
Date: June 1st, 2016Source: AAFP JournalTopics: Patient Engagement, Care Coordination, Value-Based CareAuthors of a recently published study on health coaching began their latest research well aware that health coaching can be an effective tool for physicians who want to encourage patients to self-manage their chronic diseases.
Read MoreFHIR rapidly advancing as healthcare data exchange standard
Date: June 1st, 2016Source: Health Data ManagementTopics: Interoperability, FHIRHealth Level Seven International’s Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) application programming interface is making significant progress on the road to becoming a mature standard, with the normative version slated for release early next year.
Read MoreInteroperability among U.S. Non-federal Acute Care Hospitals in 2015
Date: May 31st, 2016Source: HealthIT.govTopics: HIE, EHRs, InteroperabilityThis brief presents the most recent estimates on the state of interoperable exchange activity among U.S. non-federal acute care hospitals, including whether hospitals have key patient information electronically available from sources outside their system; whether this information is subsequently used for clinical decisions; and barriers to the exchange and use of that information.
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