The CommonWell Health Alliance and the Carequality framework have solidified their connection, boosting interoperability among members and allowing providers to more easily exchange data with each other even if they’re on different electronic health record systems. CommonWell’s new connection to the Carequality framework, which on Friday becomes available to all the groups’ participants, promotes interoperability…
Innovation is vital to the evolution and sustainability of the American healthcare system, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is working to be part of the transformation, according to its administrator. In a speech on Thursday to the Alliance for Connected Care Telehealth Policy Forum for Health Systems, CMS Administrator Seema Verma…
Humana released its annual value-based care report detailing how tying payment to performance outcomes affected Medicare Advantage patients and their providers. The physician-written report, titled “The Intersection of Health + Care,” considers quality metrics and prevention measures for 2017. About 1.74 million Medicare Advantage members who see physicians under value-based reimbursement models were included in…
New drugs offering a cure for hepatitis C patients hit the market a few years ago with jaw-dropping price tags. A 12-week course of treatment could eliminate the deadly liver infection, but at a cost of nearly $100,000. So Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger Health Plan sought to ensure it would get the most bang for its…
Excerpt: “Social determinants of health is an abstract term, but for millions of Americans, it is a very tangible, frightening challenge: How can someone manage diabetes if they are constantly worrying about how they’re going to afford their meals each week? How can a mother with an asthmatic son really improve his health if it’s…
In a recent post, we addressed the many types of population health initiatives and some guidelines for creating the most benefit. Now let’s take a closer look at one of those guidelines: integrating population health into regular or routine care of patients—specifically, with greater involvement and communication by the patients’ physicians. ACOs and their participating…
As healthcare costs continue to grow, value-based initiatives like bundled payments are here to stay and are increasingly moving to the ASC setting. The outpatient space is going to continue to explode as a lower cost setting, especially for patients who need a defined pathway of care, like a total knee or hip replacement. However,…
What does it take to achieve member-centric, value-based care in population health? At a conference in New Jersey on Thursday, speakers talked about using partnerships and data to solve challenges, especially ones made worse by poor social determinants of health. Allen J. Karp, MBA, the executive vice president of healthcare management and transformation at Horizon…
Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Alex Azar said that moving to a value-based healthcare system is a top priority for the Trump administration, speaking Thursday at the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative annual conference here. Azar also stressed that to achieve this transformation requires “real experimentation” using mandatory payment models. “I want you all…
The 2018 midterm elections shifted some control back into the hands of Democrats, who flipped the House and won some governorships, which will have mixed results for the healthcare industry, according to PwC’s Health Research Institute. Informed by interviews with healthcare advisers, association executives and a survey of 1,500 consumers, PwC’s HRI outlined five key…
Where does the healthcare stand today? Are we way ahead than what people think or do we still have to walk a lot more? Anybody who has seen the US healthcare closely would have encountered these questions at some point in their journeys. And who could be better poised to answer these questions than the…
There’s a growing body of research that affirms what Geneia’s nurses have long known. What happens outside of a patient’s clinical care – where a patient lives, what they eat and whether they have a support system – all have a tremendous impact on patient health. In fact, research suggests medical care accounts for only…
