Of all the requirements in the EHR Incentive Program, the Modified Stage 2 provisions for public health reporting were among the most controversial when finalized—and remain the most muddled. Amended by a series of CMS FAQs since Final Rules, the 2016 requirements have been significantly eased. Providers now question whether Specialized Registry reporting will become […]
Ready for Risk? How to Foster Physician Alignment with Your Health System’s APMs
We’ve seen unprecedented consolidation among hospitals, hospital systems and physician groups in recent years, sparked by the drive for greater market share. As systems organize competitively to participate in risk models such as ACOs and bundled payments, however, the dramatic surge in hospital employment of physicians hasn’t helped ACO success. In fact, most Medicare ACOs […]
APMs Are Here and MIPS Is Coming Sooner Than You Think: How to Plan for the Unknown
How do you prepare for a program with yet-to-be-defined rules that will involve larger potential penalties (or incentives)—but requires long term planning? It’s a real quandary, but the time is now to begin thinking strategically about the upcoming Merit-Based Incentive Payment System, or MIPS. MIPS Fundamentals MIPS was created from the Medicare Access and CHIP […]
ICLOPS Specialized Registry Now Open: Don’t Miss 2-29 Deadline for Active Engagement in 2016 MU Public Health Reporting
Attention, Eligible Providers and Hospitals looking for a Specialized Registry to meet public health reporting requirements in Modified Stage 2 of Meaningful Use: ICLOPS is open for business. ICLOPS Specialized Registry services will support both Eligible Providers, regardless of specialty, and Eligible Hospitals, plus all eCQMs. Since CMS finalized the modifications to the Meaningful Use program […]
All Together, Now: Why Specialists Need the CDR Edge for Bundled Payments
With the advent of Bundled Payments for selected procedures and conditions, providers and institutions must collaborate to meet both cost and quality targets. No longer will each provider bill and receive payment separately for services when these bundles become mandatory—as most experts believe will happen. All providers participating in a set “bundled” price must focus […]
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 […]
Want Real Performance and Outcomes Improvement? Track Interventions and Results Over Time
Time will explain it all. He is a talker, and needs no questioning before he speaks—Euripides For many providers, reviewing performance data is just another distraction from practicing medicine, rather than a valued tool for making better medical decisions. And who can blame them? Performance or outcome data reviewed in isolation, as static results, aren’t […]
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 […]
Putting the “Meaning” in MU Public Health Reporting: How to Move Beyond “Check the Box”
Can Medicare influence health care delivery via the “public health” reporting requirements of the EHR Incentive Program? That question is central to the updated EHR Incentive Program (more commonly known as Meaningful Use, or “MU”). The answer boils down to a fundamental choice: whether providers view the external reporting Objective as just one more compliance […]
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 […]