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Archive for the "Health Policy/Reform" category

Medicare MAPCP Medical Home Demo: CMS Kicks Sands in the States’ Faces

by Jaan Sidorov, MD and Vince Kuraitis
The Medicare MAPCP (Multi-Payer Advanced Primary Care Practice) demo promised to be Medicare’s Biggest Change in 40 Years…
…but the emerging reality isn’t living up to the promise.
In this post, we’ll discuss:

The Promise
An Overview of the MAPCP Demo
Our Main Takeaway: Emerging Reality Suggests Medicare Will Be a “Difficult” Partner
Conclusion: Think [...]

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16 Capabilities Physicians Will Need to Implement New Payment Models

(click on the graphic to download the document)
Depending on the nature of the payment changes which are made, physicians may need to enhance their capabilities in some or all of the following sixteen areas:
1. Achieving sufficient patient volume to support a new or improved service.
2. Having sufficient upfront capital to design and implement a [...]

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Is HITECH Working? #7: Where’s Plan B? Congress and ONC need to address major flaws in HITECH.

by Vince Kuraitis JD, MBA and David C. Kibbe MD, MBA
Pop quiz: Among early-stage companies that are successful, what percentage are successful with the initial business model with which they started (Plan A) vs. a secondary business model (Plan B)?
Harvard Business School Professor Clay Christensen studied this issue.  He found that among successful companies, only 7% succeeded with [...]

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Is HITECH Working? #6: HITECH and Health Reform Objectives are Synergistic

by Vince Kuraitis JD, MBA and David C. Kibbe MD, MBA
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….or to be more specific, HITECH is synergistic with payment reform that could come from the recently passed national health care reform legislation — the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
We’ll keep this post fairly short and try to avoid many of the more divisive aspects of [...]

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Is HITECH Working? #5: “Gimme my damn data!” The stage is being set to enable patient-driven disruptive innovation.

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by Dave deBronkart (e-PatientDave), Vince Kuraitis, and David C. Kibbe
So far this series has looked at HITECH participation by hospitals (grumbling but in the game) and physicians (wary, on the sidelines), kudos for ONC’s three major policy points, and how HITECH is already moving the needle on the vendor side. Today we’re going to look [...]

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Is HITECH Working? #4: While most attention has been focused on demand side incentives (will doctors and hospitals buy EHRs?), the supply (vendor) side of HIT is already transforming.

by Vince Kuraitis JD, MBA and David C. Kibbe MD, MBA
Most of the press coverage and attention to HITECH has been to the “buy” side of the market:  The central question here has been: “Will doctors and hospitals buy and use EHR technology?”
Meanwhile — and much more quietly — the sell (vendor) side of the EHR market [...]

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Is HITECH Working? #3: ONC got it right on the 3 major policy interpretations: Meaningful Use, Certification, Standards

We concluded our last post in this series with a blunt prediction that “key physicians will sit on the sidelines” and that clinician non-adoption of EHR technology is a potential “deal-breaker for the success of HITECH”.
While this might sound like a criticism of the way HITECH has been implemented, it’s not intended that way — it’s a commentary [...]

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PCMH and Healthcare Reform: Avoiding Drowning in an Ocean of Opportunity

This article appears in the April 2010 issue of Medical Home News.
First, the good news: There are a lot of pilot and demonstration projects potentially involving the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) in newly enacted Federal health care reform legislation – the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
Then, the bad news: There are a [...]

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Is HITECH Working? #1: Hospitals are grumbling but are playing in the game; success is not guaranteed.

by Vince Kuraitis JD, MBA and David C. Kibbe MD, MBA 
The rationale for hospitals having to play in the HITECH game is straightforward: the financial carrots through 2015 are helpful, and the financial sticks after 2015 will be very painful.
We’ll discuss:

Financial Impacts on Hospitals
Survey Data Showing Hospitals Will Play
Why Success is Not Guaranteed

Financial Impacts on Hospitals
Even prior to HITECH, [...]

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