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 […]
The CDR Advantage: Why Registry Research Minimizes Study Bias for Performance Improvement
The Clinical Data Registry is a powerful research tool for improving patient health. But what makes Registry-based study design better than pre-post study design? The answer has far-reaching implications for how we will use data to determine treatment effectiveness in the future, as well as how we will meet the challenge of improving health outcomes. […]
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 […]
How to Harness Clinical Data Registry Power to Improve Outcomes
At the center of Medicare’s Value-Based Health Care, the Clinical Data Registry (CDR) is introducing new possibilities for outcomes improvement. Under this month’s final rules, Medicare expanded the role of Specialized Registry and Clinical Data Registry reporting in its future Meaningful Use program. Specifically, CMS initiated provider reporting to a “Specialized Registry” in 2015 as […]
Are You Measuring Effectiveness of Your ACO’s Population Health Interventions?
It’s time to reboot your method of deploying population health initiatives, if you really want a return from your ACO efforts. Despite the intense focus on data and analytics in health care, most start-up ACOs adopt identical population health initiatives, such as intensive case management for high cost patients. The choice is not made because […]
Population Health: Fact or Fiction?
For the past couple of years, “population health” has become a popular catchphrase. Everyone is talking about it, adopting it or selling it. But if you ask anyone what it means, you’ll get very different answers. That’s because there seems to be only one point of consensus—we need to focus health care efforts on specific […]
Better Hypertension and Diabetes Outcomes: From Basic Measurement to a Plan for Improvement
Are you caught in a squeeze between avoiding penalties in both PQRS and the Value-Based Payment Modifier (VBPM)? Medicare’s move to Pay for Performance has created a Catch-22 for many groups: you may have enough data to report enough PQRS measures, but if you choose to report measures where your performance is below the CMS […]
Placebo v Nocebo: How to Test Methods of Physician Engagement in Population Health
The Holy Grail for value-based health care is to improve patient quality and cost outcomes, while stabilizing or reducing annual aggregate payouts for insurance and government benefits. By holding physicians and health systems accountable, the theory goes, providers will engage with patients in a process leading to better status and lower costs. The key word […]
Avoid PQRS and VBPM Penalties and Achieve Long Term Revenues: How to Choose the Right QCDR
Can you optimize your Value-Based Payment Modifier (VBPM) quality and cost profile to demonstrate better outcomes than others and avoid both PQRS and VBPM penalties at the same time? Yes: Use a Qualified Clinical Data Registry (QCDR) to do both. In 2014, the initial year of QCDR reporting, providers had the opportunity to report non-PQRS […]
Are “Flat-Line” Outcomes the Kiss of Death? How to Use a Registry for Outcomes Improvement Research
Despite a huge investment in health care, we have yet to demonstrate real progress in improving outcomes. A major study of patient outcomes last year revealed disappointing “flat-line” results for patient-centered medical home services, which means no difference in outcomes over time, regardless of significant expenditures. And that’s just the beginning. Assessments of cancer outcomes, preventive […]