How Geisinger Health System and Kaiser Permanente are rethinking what "health care" means, how to maximize your performance under MIPS, and more.
- How Geisinger and Kaiser are rethinking what 'health care' means. To help patients with chronic conditions like diabetes, health systems are targeting social determinants of health, such as nutrition and housing. For instance, Geisinger Health System's Andrea Feinberg helped the system develop a food prescription program aimed at improving diabetes patients' access to nutritious food. Meanwhile, Kaiser Permanente's Nirav Shah said the organization is working with Health Leads to "fundamentally redefine what counts as health care."
- Groups ask Price to delay Stage 3 meaningful use. The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives and 15 other health care organizations have sent a letter to HHS Secretary Tom Price asking the department to indefinitely delay Stage 3 of the meaningful use program and similar requirements under MACRA's Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). "Our members are very concerned with the unrealistic timeframe and the difficult-to-meet requirements laid out in Stage 3 of the meaningful use program, as well as with the related requirements under MIPS," the organizations wrote. They added, "We believe more time is needed at this stage to offer stability to the clinicians using the technology and to enable innovation in the marketplace."
- Aetna, physicians, and insurers will collaborate on CPC+ in Pennsylvania. Aetna is working with medical practices and other insurers in Pennsylvania to provide financial support and data feedback to providers in the state participating in CMS' Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) initiative. Under CPC+, practices are paid a per-patient monthly fee in addition to regular Medicare fee-for-service payments to help improve care coordination, prevention, and other areas of care. Robert O'Connor, executive director of Aetna Medicare, said, "Helping our members access this level of care is consistent with our intention to offer Medicare Advantage plans that achieve high-quality ratings of 4 stars or better from CMS."
From Advisory Board:
- Building the medical neighborhood. In order to build a successful medical neighborhood, you'll need to formalize collaboration expectations between primary and specialty care providers. Join Advisory Board Senior Consultant Rebecca Tyrrell on Wednesday, May 24, to get an overview of the medical neighborhood model, five tactics for enhancing coordination within the neighborhood, and case studies that illustrate these tactics in action.
- Playbook for maximizing your performance under MIPS. MACRA will fundamentally change the way clinicians are paid by Medicare. Join Advisory Board's Julia Connell on Wednesday, March 8, to learn about the reporting requirements groups need to be aware of under the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) track, strategies for effective reporting, and how groups can take advantage of additional flexibility in 2017 to maximize payment in 2019 and beyond.
- How to effectively identify and manage patients with a history of multiple readmissions. Join Advisory Board's Emily Roberson for a webconference on Friday, March 17, to learn how to identify these patients and what you can do to ensure treatment is being administered in the right setting.