Category: Healthcare Industry News
CMS Releases Draft Plan for New Payment Models
Date: December 21st, 2015Source: HealthData ManagementTopics: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), Accountable CareAs part of its efforts to shift Medicare payments from volume to value, CMS has released a draft Quality Measure Development Plan outlining how the agency will support the transition to a new Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and for providers who choose to participate in alternative payment models (APMs).
Read MoreBest Practices: Paramedics deployed as care navigators
Date: December 19th, 2015Source: Modern HealthcareTopics: Transformation Support Services, Care Coordination, Value-Based Care, Emergency ServicesFormer paramedic Matt Zadavsky long believed that there was a broader role for his profession beyond simply responding to emergencies. In line with a 1996 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report, he envisioned a system in which paramedics functioned as navigators, steering patients to the most appropriate care setting to reduce use of hospital emergency departments.
Read MorePush On To Make Transparent Medical Records The National Standard Of Care
Date: December 18th, 2015Source: Kaiser Health NewsTopics: Health IT, Patient Engagement, Accountable CareAs many as 50 million patients may have a chance to find out in the next few years, following the announcement this week of $10 million in new grants to expand the OpenNotes project, which works with medical providers to expand patient access to clinician notes.
Read MoreHow We Transformed Emergency Care at Our Hospital
Date: December 17th, 2015Source: Harvard Business ReviewTopics: Transformation Support Services, Emergency Services, Patient CareAt the University of Colorado Hospital ED, which I am privileged to lead, we realized that more space alone wouldn’t save us. So we took a different approach, building a highly integrated leadership team that sets a new standard for emergency care, with the needs of patients (not providers) as the driving force.
Read MoreGetting a Handle on APIs and Health IT Interoperability
Date: December 11th, 2015Source: HealthIT InteroperabilityTopics: EHRs, Health IT, InteroperabilityWith preliminary meetings over the past two weeks, the Health IT Policy Committee’s API Task Force has begun to uncover possible barriers to the widespread adoption of open application programming interfaces (APIs) in healthcare. It has also started to probe for real and perceived privacy/security risks that could hamper development of APIs within the broader scheme of health IT interoperability.
Read MoreONC’s DeSalvo Aggressively Pushes HIE Connectivity in 2016
Date: December 11th, 2015Source: Healthcare InformaticsTopics: HIE, InteroperabilitySpeaking at a Bipartisan Policy Center event in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 8, Karen DeSalvo, M.D., National Coordinator for Health IT, announced that her health IT agency’s goal is to connect private and public health information exchanges (HIEs) in the entire country within a year.
Read MoreTop 6 Accountable Care Organization Questions Explained
Date: December 11th, 2015Source: RevCycle IntelligenceTopics: Transformation Support Services, Value-Based Care, Accountable Care"What organization in your life has ever said, ‘Let's decrease our revenue – that's a good thing to do'?” Sometimes questions are more important than answers. Accountable care organizations (ACOs) — groups of doctors, hospitals, and healthcare providers helping provide Medicare beneficiaries with top-notch coordinated fee-for-service care – are creating a flurry of questions across the healthcare industry.
Read MoreBedside handoffs boost patient satisfaction
Date: December 5th, 2015Source: Modern HealthcareTopics: Patient Engagement, Care Coordination, Accountable Care, Patient CareThe concept was simple but represented a major break with standard practice. At shift change, the departing nurse and the nurse coming on duty meet to discuss the patient's care with each other and with the patient and the patient's family. They have that conversation right in the patient's room rather than doing the “shift change handover” at a nursing station or in the hallway.
Read MoreEHRs Credited for Increase in Hospital Patient Safety
Date: December 2nd, 2015Source: Health Data ManagementTopics: EHRs, Hospital Readmissions, Patient CareThanks in part to widespread adoption of electronic health records, an estimated 87,000 fewer hospital patients died and nearly $20 billion in costs were saved because of reduced hospital-acquired conditions from 2010 to 2014.
Read MoreKeeping data – and people – healthy
Date: November 30th, 2015Source: Health Management TechnologyTopics: Data Security, Patient Care, Data AnalyticsThings have changed quickly and dramatically in the healthcare industry – by necessity. The Affordable Care Act has allowed millions of Americans to gain health insurance. Global health initiatives are also improving health and raising the bar for healthcare around the world. The advent of new business models, like the Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and multiple reimbursements models, and the imperative to enable population health management is transforming healthcare, particularly in the United States, at an unprecedented rate. It is anticipated that the pace of transformation will be accelerated in other parts of the world, once the United States develops an accountable care model that is best practice, mature, and scalable.
Read MoreEngaging patients and lowering readmissions by focusing on transitional care
Date: November 19th, 2015Source: The Connected ClinicianTopics: HIE, Care Coordination, Hospital ReadmissionsHospital readmission rates in the United States are among the highest in the world. In 2011, there were 3.3 million 30-day readmissions to the hospital, which contributed more than $41 billion in hospital costs. Medicare patients accounted for $26 billion of these costs, and $17 billion of these Medicare readmission costs were deemed avoidable by the Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA). With all of the money that readmissions are costing the hospital system, it’s important to look at a vital, yet often undervalued, factor in reducing readmissions: transitional care.
Read MoreTrusting Health APIs
Date: November 19th, 2015Source: http://www.hhs.gov/idealab/2015/11/19/trusting-health-apis/Topics: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Health IT, InteroperabilityIn the Healthcare, world trust is the basis for all interactions. The Patient-Doctor relationship is the primary example of Trust and is probably the most important relationship in Health. As Health goes digital it is essential that we bring trust with us into the digital world. One of the big challenges is to do this without the trust process becoming either intrusive or limiting.
Read MoreFed Advisers: Tie Financial Incentives to Data Exchange
Date: November 16th, 2015Source: Health Data ManagementTopics: HIE, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Interoperability, Value-Based Care, Accountable CareA Health IT Policy Committee task force has made four recommendations targeting financial and business barriers that are holding back the interoperability of healthcare information. Paul Tang, M.D., chair of the interoperability task force, acknowledged that none of the recommendations are “likely to change the facts on the ground overnight.” But he argued that alignment of incentives for providers and vendors could foster business practices that result in routine interoperable data exchange.
Read MoreThe CFO's Guide to Healthcare Quality: Key Metrics to Track & Trends to Follow
Date: November 13th, 2015Source: Becker's Hospital CFOTopics: Value-Based Care, Accountable Care, Quality ImprovementHospital and health system CFOs check numerous metrics on a daily basis and, as reimbursement becomes more closely linked to health outcomes, finance chiefs are examining quality metrics as a part of their daily routines. The arenas of cost and quality have become more connected in recent years through various Affordable Care Act initiatives and due to the increasing use of bundled payments and formation of accountable care organizations.
Read MoreCMS Issues New FAQs About Meeting HIE, Patient Engagement Meaningful Use Requirements
Date: November 11th, 2015Source: EHR IntelligenceTopics: HIE, Meaningful Use, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Patient EngagementQUESTION: For the Health Information Exchange objective for meaningful use in 2015 through 2017, may an eligible professional (EP), eligible hospital or critical access hospital (CAH) count a transition of care or referral in its numerator for the measure if they electronically create and send a summary of care document using their CEHRT to a third party organization that plays a role in determining the next provider of care and ultimately delivers the summary of care document? ANSWER: Yes. An EP, eligible hospital or CAH may count transmissions in this measure’s numerator when a third party organization is involved so long as: The summary of care document is created using certified EHR technology (CEHRT); The summary of care document is transmitted electronically by the EP, eligible hospital or CAH to the third party organization.
Read MoreTowards Healthcare Interoperability: What Must Be Done?
Date: November 9th, 2015Source: The American Journal of Managed CareTopics: HIE, EHRs, InteroperabilityHealthcare information technology (IT) began like cellphone towers. At its inception, a patient's record in 1 EHR could not be copied to a different vendor's solution without significant work. In today's highly distributed American population, with 7.3 million people moving to a different state every year, we can no longer rely on a single health record. When I go to my doctor in Philadelphia, she needs to see my x-ray back from when I lived in Boston. A cancer patient's doctor needs to be able to get chemotherapy and radiation treatment records and load them into his or her own system to continue the therapeutic pathway. When a car crash victim is sent by helicopter across the state to a level 1 trauma center, even overnight express Fed Ex is too slow for a computed tomography scan to arrive on a DVD. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the ability to exchange information emerges as the new holygrail for EHR providers. The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society defines interoperativity at 3 levels.
Read MoreAccountable Care Pushing Urgent Care to Boost IT Capabilities
Date: November 6th, 2015Source: Health Data ManagementTopics: Health IT, Care Coordination, Accountable CareUrgent care is on the fast track for growth in the U.S., for reasons that are economic, as well as related to consumer cost and access to care. Urgent care makes sense in a system transitioning to value-based care. The niche is attracting attention from integrated delivery systems, hospitals and physician offices. Recent activity in the market underscores the growing role that provider organizations see for urgent care in building a cost-effective continuum of care.
Read MoreWhy Interoperability Initiatives are Accelerating
Date: November 1st, 2015Source: Health Data ManagementTopics: HIE, EHRs, InteroperabilityIndustry efforts to achieve interoperability have exploded in recent weeks, as several initiatives are working toward ways to advance the exchange of healthcare information. Most recently, HL7 convened a strategy meeting in Chicago to bring together stakeholders to discuss gaps in interoperability efforts and ways to bridge those gaps. Earlier in October, a dozen major vendors of electronic health records systems agreed to a set of interoperability metrics in order to measure their progress. Other interoperability initiatives have been announced recently, some of them pairing diverse industry stakeholders.
Read MoreCMS Clarifies Meaningful Use Requirements for Public Health
Date: October 22nd, 2015Source: EHR IntelligenceTopics: EHRs, Meaningful Use, Public Health ReportingAfter the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) modified the CMS EHR Incentive Programs for 2015-2017, several medical professionals expressed concern about being able to meet some of the revised requirements for the next reporting period. To address those concerns, CMS released a frequently asked questions list, and specifically addressed concerns regarding public health reporting.
Read MorePrecision Medicine, Big Data Analytics Intersect for Better Care
Date: October 19th, 2015Source: HealthIT AnalyticsTopics: Health IT, Patient Care, Data Analytics, Precision MedicineWhen it comes to healthcare big data analytics, finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow isn’t exactly an easy task. Even the process of identifying if there is a pot of gold – and how to plot a course towards the rainbow before planning out the best way to follow it – can be monumentally difficult for organizations mired down in EHR optimization projects, meaningful use, payment reforms, and budding population health management programs.
Read MoreMeaningful Use Final Rules: 3 Things You Need to Know
Date: October 16th, 2015Source: Managed Healthcare ExecutiveTopics: EHRs, Meaningful Use, Health IT, Healthcare PolicyOn October 6, 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released Meaningful Use (MU)-Stage 2 modifications and Stage 3 final rules. The final rules will simplify requirements and add new flexibilities for providers to make electronic health information available when and where it matters most and for healthcare providers and consumers to be able to readily, safely, and securely exchange that information, according to CMS.
Read MoreAAFP Says It's Time for Action on Interoperability
Date: October 14th, 2015Source: FierceHealthITTopics: HIE, Interoperability, Healthcare PolicyIt's time for action on interoperability, Robert Wergin, M.D., board chair of the American Academy of Family Physicians, says in a letter responding to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT's interoperability roadmap. On Oct. 6, the ONC published a final version of the 10-year plan. However, in a letter to National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo, Wergin says AAFP members do "not sense the necessary level of urgency to achieve this important goal and call on ONC to further accelerate this work." He adds that the national health IT ecosystem needs "to undergo more rapid transformation than has been the case to date."
Read MoreConsidering MACRA’s Effect on Future Meaningful Use Changes
Date: October 12th, 2015Source: RevCycle IntelligenceTopics: EHRs, Meaningful Use, MACRA, Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), Healthcare PolicyThe Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has confirmed a 60-day period of public commentary regarding the Stage 3 Electronic Health Record (EHR) incentive program and the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (H.R. 2, MACRA). New requirements throughout the next two years have been outlined. Up for debate is how MACRA may influence upcoming Meaningful Use changes. “This final rule with comment period synchronizes reporting under the EHR Incentive Programs to end the separate stages of meaningful use, which we believe will prepare Medicare EPs for the transition to MIPS,” the final rule states. The regulation aims to help flip the reimbursement switch from volume to value.
Read MoreCMS Tries Out Telehealth Payment Model at Nursing Facilities
Date: October 9th, 2015Source: Healthcare IT NewsTopics: SNF, Value-Based Care, Long-Term Care, TelehealthA federal partnership with seven health systems is testing whether a new payment model that supports telemedicine can be used to reduce hospitalizations of long-term residents in nursing homes. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is launching the second phase of this three-year project, which tests whether "high-intensity treatment services" can reduce avoidable hospitalizations, lower Medicare and Medicaid spending and improve the residents' quality of care.
Read MoreAdjusting to Value-Based Care as an Independent Practice
Date: October 9th, 2015Source: Physicians PracticeTopics: PQRS, Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), Value-Based Care, Provider Reimbursement, Accountable Care, Quality ImprovementWith growing pressure for independent practices to team up for accountable care and looming value-based reimbursement, many practices nationwide are uncertain of how to move ahead toward success for their practice and their patients. "At the end of the day, [value-based care] is coming,” said Gerard Filicko, senior vice president of clinical services at inHEALTH. "This is the new environment that physicians have to be prepared for, regardless of what you think of the government or Obamacare."
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