Register now for our complimentary program on innovative models of care delivery

With the ongoing transformation of health care delivery, innovative care models that partner physicians and hospitals as co-leaders of the clinical enterprise are rapidly emerging. Join your physician and hospital executive colleagues on Tuesday, July 22 from 11:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, CA for this half-day complimentary program to learn about two care models that ease transitions across the continuum of care: the perioperative surgical home and the Hospital at Home^®. The program will highlight real-world examples of innovative care delivery models and is structured to encourage networking and exchange of ideas among participants. This session, happening in conjunction with the Health Forum/AHA Leadership Summit, is sponsored by the AHA’s Physician Leadership Forum and the American Society of Anesthesiologists, and will include presentations, panel discussions, and Q&A sessions. Attendance is limited to ensure opportunity for dialogue.

To learn more or register for this complimentary program, click here.

CMS releases proposed physician payment rule

Last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued its proposed rule for the physician fee schedule for calendar year 2015. Under the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014, physician payments will remain flat through March 31, 2015, at which time, they will decline by a mandated 20.9 percent without congressional intervention. Other provisions in the proposed rule include payment for chronic care management services, application of the value-based payment modifier, and updates to the scoring methodology for accountable care organizations in the Medicare Shared Savings Program to recognize year-to-year improvement in performance scores. AHA members were sent a Special Bulletin with further details.

Health care’s digital journey

A recent article from McKinsey&Company looks at health care IT through the years and how the field is on the cusp of a third generation of IT adoption. According to the authors, success in this third wave of digital depends on first understanding patients’ digital preferences in both channel and service. To do this, the authors surveyed thousands of patients from different age groups, countries, genders, and incomes, and with varying levels of digital savvy. The authors say many digital health care strategies are driven by myths or information that is no longer true and present five insights they found from their survey:

The article also discusses three steps that can help health care organizations as they begin their journey toward the third wave of digitization. They include understanding what it is that patients really want and the best way to give it to them; segmenting services according to basic criteria such as investment required, patient demand, and value created; and continually adding new services to keep patient attention.

The importance of big data to fuel future health care knowledge

A recent article (abstract only) from the journal Health Affairs explores ways in which big data can be harnessed to advance prediction, performance, discovery, and comparative effectiveness research to address the complexity of patients, populations, and organizations. The author says there’s a need for the clinical research enterprise to expand its approaches to generating new clinical and population health knowledge. To gather all of this data will require new thinking, new training, and new methods and tools. The author acknowledges challenges in collecting and sharing such a vast amount of data, including privacy issues, validating findings and the need for increased interdisciplinary collaboration. Leveraging this data can lead to new insights and transform medicine, the author says. For example, such information could allow the preemption of health care problems and properly target interventions, or it could help researchers match patients who are and are not treated in certain ways to determine the effect of specific strategies. If adequately harnessed and utilized, the author says these reservoirs of data can be a practically inexhaustible source of knowledge to fuel a learning health care system.

Physicians playing strong leadership role in ACOs

Physicians are playing a strong leadership and ownership role in accountable care organizations (ACOs), according to a recent study (abstract only) in the journal Health Affairs. Researchers surveyed 173 ACOs and found that:

According to the researchers, physician-led ACOs are less likely to include hospitals and other types of providers, but are more likely to include physician groups. In addition, physician-led ACOs were found to have care management and health IT capabilities similar to those of other ACOs, despite having different leadership structures and offering fewer services. In comparison to other ACOs, the researchers say ones that are physician-led may face greater challenges than others in integrating care across diverse health care providers, and that participating physicians may need to give up some autonomy for an ACO to be successfully implemented.

Doctors may soon be reimbursed for having end-of-life discussions

Doctors who speak to patients and their families about end-of-life planning and treatment may be reimbursed for such conversations, according to an article from USA Today. Rather than through legislation, the article says the proposal would be adopted through regulatory procedure. The American Medical Association’s Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC) is set to issue recommendations to the federal government regarding the resources doctors expend when they provide advance care planning to patients, or confer with them about the care they would want if incapacitated. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services usually uses these recommendations, along with input from others, to set reimbursement rates, which private insurers also tend to use. The Illinois State Medical Society first suggested to AMA last year to create a specific medical code to reimburse doctors for advance care discussions. U.S. Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon is sponsoring a bill that would require reimbursement for advance care planning.

Strategies for better physician engagement

A recent article from H&HN Daily discusses the importance of physician engagement and three actions health care organizations can take to improve it. They are:

The article says health care leaders may need to create resources to address physician engagement, such as developing a sabbatical program so physicians can go on medical missions. Leaders also need to help physicians achieve better work-life balance in order to avoid burnout. No matter how an organization decides to proceed, the article says there are a few underlying basics critical to lasting physician engagement including making sure physicians are involved in leading initiatives and in decision-making at every step, establishing clear benchmarks, and periodically measuring progress.

ABMS call for patient safety activities

As part of its commitment to improve the quality and safety of health care, the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) is inviting all health care organizations and stakeholders to participate in the ABMS Call for Patient Safety Activities in support of the ABMS Program for Maintenance of Certification (ABMS Program for MOC) for MOC Part IV: Improvement in Medical Practice.

The ABMS Call for Patient Safety Activities provides organizations the opportunity to submit patient safety activities for approval by the Member Boards Programs for MOC. The ABMS Call for Patient Safety Activities provides a road map to spread knowledge, recognition, and widespread adoption of quality patient safety activities across the Member Boards’ Community. Applications need to be submitted to ABMS before July 18, 2014.

To learn more or apply, click here.

Register now for two upcoming complimentary webinars from the PLF

The Physician Leadership Forum is now accepting registrations for two of its upcoming complimentary webinars:

 

 

Arjun Srinivasan, MD, FSHEA, CAPT USPHS, Associate Director for Healthcare Associated Infection Prevention Programs, and Medical Director, Get Smart for Healthcare, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will give an overview of the clinical evidence supporting antimicrobial stewardship programs and the CDC’s core elements in developing a hospital antimicrobial stewardship program.

 

Also joining the call will be Howard S. Gold, MD, Medical Director of Antimicrobial Stewardship, Silverman Institute for Health Care Quality and Safety, and Division of Infectious Diseases, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, who will share his hospital’s perspective on implementing an antimicrobial stewardship program, including their successes, opportunities for improvement, and lessons learned along the way.

 

To register for the July 16 webinar, click here.

 

 

 

Presenters Susan D. Douglass, president, Susan Douglass and Associates, LLC, and Paul H. Keckley, PhD, managing director, healthcare, Navigant Consulting, Inc., will present a proven set of building blocks for a successful transition to team-based care as well as two case studies and some key skill sets required for success including some from outside the health care field. Specifically:

To register for the Sept. 10 webinar, click here.

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