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care management
Testing Technology vs. Enabling a System of Chronic Care â Results of the NIH Tele-HF Trial
by Randy Williams, MD FACC, CEO of Pharos Innovations
The results from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored Tele-HF trial are in, and the findings are worth considering . The results are counter to most of the findings of other studies examining telemonitoring for heart failure and at face value are disappointing to us, and the industry. Upon closer examination, however, this study offers us an excellent opportunity for further innovation, refinement of solutions and continuous improvement. It also provides a snapshot […]
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 […]
Hospital Readmissions Avoidance âProgramsâ â Vendors and Hospitals Not All On the Same Wavelength
Last week I attended and participated in an excellent conference â the National Reducing Hospital Readmissions Forum sponsored by World Research Group.
One of my main take aways is to observe a simple â yet huge â difference in mindset between hospital executives and vendors.
Over the past few months I’ve heard many vendors with diverse health care offerings talking about building readmission avoidance âprogramsâ that they want to sell to hospitals. Their idea here is to put together a soup-to-nuts offering of technologies and services […]
The Achilles Heel of ACOs? Shared Savings Payment Model Unlikely to Motivate Hospitals
Sometimes you read something and the full impact doesn’t hit you until hours â perhaps days â later. As I was out mountain biking today, the importance of something I ran across yesterday suddenly hit me.
Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are today’s cure-du-jour for reforming the health care delivery system. Bob Berensen, MD of the Urban Institute strongly questions whether the shared savings model under current legislation provides enough economic incentive for hospitals to disrupt their existing core business of acute, inpatient care.
The dialogue […]
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 […]
âDisease Managementâ RIP
The Care Continuum Alliance has mercifully and wisely rebranded it’s name and eliminated the initials âDMAAâ. See its press release: Care Continuum Alliance Launches New Brand for Population Health Improvement. (As a reminder, DMAA originally stood for Disease Management Association of America.)
I for one say âhurrah, and good riddanceâ.
Where Did the Term âDisease Managementâ (DM) Trip Up?
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 […]
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 […]
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 âbuyâ side of the market: The central question here has been: âWill doctors and hospitals buy and use EHR technology?â
Meanwhile â and much more quietly â the sell (vendor) side of the EHR market is already dramatically different than it was a year ago. We observe change occurring at at least three levels:
HITECH […]