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medical home
âThe Top Ten Things You Need To Know About Engaging PatientsââŚand the Why
Hi all, my name is Howard Rosen (Founder & CEO of LifeWIRE Corp), co-author of the recently published white paper report entitled âTop Ten Things You Need To Know About Engaging Patients.â You can access a copy here through the Institute for Health Technology Transformation (scroll down to âWhitepapersâ.)
According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 88% of American adults with Internet access research health information online and 60% say Internet info influenced a decision about how […]
A One in a Hundred Whitepaper: âBetter to Bestâ Transcends PCMH, Care Coordination, Access, HIT, and ACO Payment Reform
Let me try to get you in the right frame of mind to read one of the most remarkable white papers in a long time: Better to BEST: Value Driving Elements of the Patient Centered Medical Home and Accountable Care Organizations â released yesterday by the Commonwealth Fund, Dartmouth Institute, and PCPCC.
Having been a debater in high school and then trained as a lawyer, my default mode of thinking is to be critical:
âHey, Vince, how ya doin’? Great day isn’t […]
Getting DIRECTly to the Point: The Role of the Direct Project in Fast-Tracking Health IT Interoperability
By Rich Elmore and Arien Malec. Rich Elmore is the Direct Project Communication Workgroup leader and Vice President, Strategic Initiatives at Allscripts. Arien Malec is ONCâs Coordinator, Direct Project and Coordinator, S&I Framework.
A patientâs health records are no longer confined to a doctorâs office, shelved inside a dusty file cabinet. With the advent of the Nationwide Health Information Network, a framework of standards, services and policies that allow health practitioners to securely exchange health data, medical records digitized to be easily […]
Will ACO IT Models Be Walled Gardens or Open Platforms?
Will ACO (accountable care organization) IT models be walled gardens or open platforms? i.e., will ACO IT platforms focus on exchanging information within the provider network of the ACO, or will they also be able to exchange information with providers outside the ACO network? (If the question still isn’t clear, click here for a further explanation.).
âDoes This ACO Thing Really Mean We Need to be âAccountableââ
The American College of Physicians (ACP) just released a well-reasoned and thorough position paper, The Patient-Centered Medical Home Neighbor: The Interface of the Patient-Centered Medical Home with Specialty/Subspecialty Practices.
As I’ve written before, the Big Idea behind ACOs (Accountable Care Organizations) is the notion of accountability, not the specifics of organizational structure.
The purpose of the ACP position paper is to address the gaps that exist in care coordination when a physician refers a patient to a specialist. The obvious and logical answer proposed is to develop […]
Care Coordination Metrics: One Can of Worms that NEEDS to be Opened
âTrack who is on a care team â and share info with the patient.â
That’s just one of the summary recommendations coming from expert testimony given in a recent public hearing on how to improve care coordination through the use of health information technology. The Meaningful Use workgroup and Quality Measures workgroups are now wrestling with how to translate this recommendation into meaningful use criteria for HITECH Stages 2 and 3.
Seems like […]
The State-of-the-Art of Care Management Software: Disconnected
Care management software is intended to help patients make critical connections across the health care delivery system. Today it’s used primarily by 3rd party care managers who are typically either employed directed or indirectly by payers. While not surprising, the state-of-the-art of care management software is that it continues to function as disconnected islands of information.
The  2010 Health Information Technology Survey (available at no charge) provides an insightful yet sobering snapshot of care management software. The study was sponsored by TCS Healthcare Technologies, the […]
Megatrend Spotting: Health Plan Role of Having âBest Data About YOUR Medical Conditionsâ is Up for Grabs
Who has the most comprehensive data about YOUR clinical conditions?
For most people, the answer today is âyour health planâ, but itâs not at all clear that health plans will continue to have this role in the future.
As physicians and hospitals adopt EHRs, itâs foreseeable that clinical data about patients will be far more available and accessible.
Will patient data become:
A jockeying point for control and business advantage between health plans and care providers,
A collaborative opportunity to optimize clinical care and care […]
Overview: Here Come Stages 2 and 3 of HITECH!
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Weâve spent the past year creating the MU (meaningful use) requirements for Stage 1 of the HITECH act. As shown by the diagram above, Stage 1 focuses on Data Capture and Sharing. Now itâs time to begin to focus on Stage 2 (Advanced Clinical Processes) and Stage 3 (Improved Outcomes).
The current generation of EMRs (electronic medical records) were designed primarily to assist care providers with clinical documentation, billing, and maximizing revenues. They were not designed to enable care coordination and […]
Medicare MAPCP Medical Home Demo: CMS Kicks Sands in the Statesâ Faces
by Jaan Sidorov, MD and Vince Kuraitis
The Medicare MAPCP (Multi-Payer Advanced Primary Care Practice) demo promised to be Medicareâs Biggest Change in 40 Years…
…but the emerging reality isnât living up to the promise.
In this post, weâll discuss:
The Promise
An Overview of the MAPCP Demo
Our Main Takeaway: Emerging Reality Suggests Medicare Will Be a âDifficultâ Partner
Conclusion: Think Twice Before Signing Up
1) The Promise
The sandbox metaphor was first used by the National Academy for State Health Policy:
For the 10 or more […]