Roji Intel Blog

Thomas Dent, M.D. 0
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AttributionClinical Data RegistryFuture of Health CareMeaningful UsePerformance ImprovementValue-Based Health Care
January 12, 2016

Public Health Reporting for Specialists: Avoiding Penalties Isn’t the Only Reason to Comply

At the heart of CMS’s Public Health Reporting Requirements for Meaningful Use is a basic premise: EMR technology must facilitate tracking of public health trends and long-term outcomes improvement. That is why all providers in the Meaningful Use program, regardless of specialty, are now being required to engage in public health reporting to avoid a penalty. Many specialists don’t see the point of reporting for public health reasons or find it too difficult. While it’s true that specialists face some specific challenges that require dedicated reporting to fit their clinical operations and to avoid professional and financial risks, there are…
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Dave Halpert 0
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ACO ReportingAlternative Payment Models (APM)AttributionClinical Data RegistryFuture of Health CarePerformance ImprovementValue-Based Health Care
January 5, 2016

Bundled Payments Aren’t Mandatory for Everyone (Yet): Is Your Group Ready?

It’s taken more than a half-century, but the Medicare Final Rule on Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CCJR) has set in motion utilization reporting that will shift the focus from static data about diagnoses, services and days in hospital to meaningful information about care transitions and outcomes. It’s taken a long time. But now that we’re here, the train is leaving the station. The big question facing providers: with Medicare’s push to ensure that compensation from Alternative Payment Models (APMs) accounts for half of reimbursements by 2018, is a Bundled Payment the best APM for you and your group? A…
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Dave Halpert 0
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ACO ReportingAlternative Payment Models (APM)AttributionPerformance ImprovementPQRS Reporting
December 15, 2015

Expanding Your ACO: The Best Recruiting Strategy for Bigger ACO Savings

Whether your ACO is in its infancy or is established and growing, you’ve probably had to make some difficult choices about which groups to include—and exclude. Your ACO’s success is almost entirely driven by your ACO network’s participating providers (and their patients). They provide the care and generate beneficiary costs, and help to ensure better patient outcomes. Developing that network intelligently is key to achieving shared savings. We’re here to help. Know this: one “free market” concept behind Alternate Payment Models is flawed—the assumption that providers who can demonstrate better results in quality and costs will be in higher demand.…
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Dave Halpert 0
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ACO ReportingAlternative Payment Models (APM)AttributionClinical Data RegistryPerformance Improvement
December 1, 2015

Don’t Let Wishful Thinking and Healthy Patients Harm Your ACO

Can healthy patients actually hinder your ACO’s ability to generate shared savings? Without a multi-layered strategy to improve continually over the course of the ACO agreement, the answer is yes. With the majority of ACOs failing to generate shared savings, a growing number of groups are beginning to realize that serving either the healthy or seriously ill end of the population health spectrum creates its own set of challenges. Compared to the Value-Based Payment Modifier program, ACOs are finding it nearly impossible to distinguish themselves through performance on quality measures. For ACOs to prove that they are more effectively coordinating…
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Dave Halpert 0
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ACO ReportingAttributionClinical Data RegistryMeaningful UsePQRS ReportingQualified Clinical Data Registry ReportingValue-Based Payment Modifier
November 17, 2015

2016 Medicare Final Physician Payment Rule: What You Must Know

CMS’s push toward value-based care and performance improvement leaves no more room for doubt. In a hefty 1,358 pages, the 2016 Medicare Final Rule  expands the role of Qualified Clinical Data Registries for PQRS reporting, dovetailing with the Specialized/Clinical Data Registry component in the Meaningful Use Rules. Both methods place the focus squarely on how outcomes change over time, across all patients. Tracking outcomes and measuring improvement are no longer optional. Here’s what you need to know: QCDRs Get GPRO Submission Status As expected, the differentiation between the Final Rule and the Proposed Rule is minor; the most important change for…
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Dave Halpert 0
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Alternative Payment Models (APM)AttributionMerit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)Qualified Clinical Data Registry ReportingValue-Based Payment Modifier
September 1, 2015

Mastering MSPB: How “Episode” Care Calculations Make or Break Your Revenues

The whole may be greater than the sum of its parts—but how those parts each contribute to the whole is key to a new Medicare calculation of episode costs. If you aren’t paying attention to the total cost of an entire “episode” of care for your patients—including that rendered by others—your future revenues may take a hit. Enter Medicare Spending Per Beneficiary (MSPB), a component of CMS’s Value-Based Payment Modifier (VBPM) calculations that is crucial to your bottom line. MSPB is a measure of charges per episode of care that looks at costs immediately prior to, during and following a hospital…
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Dave Halpert 0
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AttributionPQRS ReportingValue-Based Payment Modifier
August 25, 2015

How to Boost Your VBPM with ICD-10

With five weeks until ICD-10 becomes official, take note: Your transition strategy must include PQRS and the Value-Based Payment Modifier (VBPM). Neglecting VBPM in your short-term plan may lead to long-term penalties. That now goes for everybody, whether you helm an Academic Medical Center or run a small practice. October 1, 2015, marks the starting date of the new coding set for diagnoses and inpatient procedures. ICD-10’s increased specificity dovetails with how medicine is practiced today, versus the 36-year-old ICD-9 coding. Given a choice between implementation and lost revenues, practices will have no option but to make the transition. As…
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Dave Halpert 0
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AttributionPQRS ReportingValue-Based Payment Modifier
May 26, 2015

Provider Network Growth? How to Avoid Unanticipated Medicare VBPM Penalties

Mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and affiliations—this is the new face of health care, and the trend shows no signs of slackening. If your group has grown and changed significantly through consolidation, you’d best take a second look at your 2013 Quality and Resource Use Report (QRUR). Chances are, it no longer applies to your organization, putting your at risk for significant penalties under the Value-Based Payment Modifier (VBPM). The good news is that CMS has released its Mid-Year 2014 QRURs to all providers, regardless of how many providers are billed under your group’s Tax Identification Number (TIN). Why bother…
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Theresa Hush 0
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AttributionPopulation HealthPQRS ReportingQualified Clinical Data Registry ReportingValue-Based Payment Modifier
May 12, 2015

Prove You’re a Top Tier Health Care Provider: Six Essentials for Your Value-Based Purchasing Game Plan

You know you need to shift your organization toward Value-Based Health Care. It’s a trend that’s here to stay, and you’re deep into planning your strategy. Question is, what’s the right game plan that will enable you to reap financial benefits by proving you’re a top-tier provider that offers quality, cost-effective health care? All too often, providers focus on adopting a reimbursement and delivery model that assumes risk without addressing fundamentals. Remember, this is not just about reorganizing to manage risk without engineering for improvement. While you must take steps to participate in the new Value-Based Health Care models, you…
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Dave Halpert 0
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AttributionPQRS ReportingQualified Clinical Data Registry ReportingValue-Based Payment Modifier
May 5, 2015

Who Else Cares for Your Patients? How the Wrong Patient Attribution Can Skew Your VBPM

So, exactly who are your patients? Sounds like a silly question. But when it comes to Medicare’s patient attribution methodology, the answer is not obvious. Medicare attributes patients to providers and practices in order to calculate components of the Value-Based Payment Modifier (VBPM). Like it or not, certain patients can be attributed to your practice, even if their conditions are not under your clinical management, skewing your VBPM. If you don’t understand the rules, you risk significant penalties. This is true for all providers, but most apparent in specialty groups. As a Qualified Registry and QCDR that reports all measures…
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