Fresh Insights and Perspective on the Affordable Care Act
The impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is far reaching; whether you are addressing medical loss ratios, participating in an Accountable Care Organization (ACO), or looking for ways to make Meaningful Use practices effective. “Politics will continue to play a role in healthcare and the evolution of ACA is not an exception. We expect changes in the coming year, and a slowdown in some requirements. This will challenge healthcare organizational priorities and impact budgets.” – Scott Walkiewicz “Since the ACA resulted in...
How Doctors Can Engage Patients and Meet Stage 2 Meaningful Use Guidelines By Robin Figueroa
When we, at Freed Associates, talk with medical professionals about Meaningful Use (MU) objective requirements, we’re used to seeing their eyes roll back in their heads. The most frequent reaction is, “So what? This is just another program that makes us click boxes in an electronic health record (EHR) so someone (other than us) can receive money. This means nothing to us or to patient care. Meaningful Use (MU) is not meaningful to us or our patients.” Adapting to new technology...
A Roadmap for Meeting ICD-10: Taking a Break is Not an Option
Since the deadline for ICD-10 compliance has been delayed until October 2015, healthcare organizations may be tempted to ignore the initiative for several months. Most of our clients have gone into a slow-down period after getting their technical side compliant. According to Healthcare IT News, the annual report to Congress from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology shows that 59 percent of hospitals and 48 percent of physicians had at least a basic EHR system. Among...
Moving Your Healthcare Organization – Eight Strategies to Ensure Your Move Runs Smoothly By Margaret Leonard, Joella Canales and Laika Kayani
Making a move in the best of times is difficult. For medical practices, clinics and hospitals already challenged by our changing healthcare landscape, planning for a move or transition takes specialized skills and experience. By selecting an appropriate manager for the project, identifying and engaging appropriate stakeholders, and having a well-designed strategic transition plan, you’ll have a great opportunity to come out a hero — and not the victim of unforeseen circumstances. The following checklist is designed to help you develop...
How to Win in the Small Employer Health Insurance Market
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has focused so much attention on the individual marketplace that the sweeping changes in the small employer marketplace have almost gone unnoticed. For many health plans, small employers represent an important book of business. The insurance companies who are the first to adapt their business to embrace the post-reform small employer market will realize gains in market share without sacrificing margins. The mass exodus from the small employer market, predicted by many, did not materialize. It...
ACOs: Now What? The Next Step in the Future of Health Care
Is the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) model sustainable? In their first years, ACOs focused on reducing health care utilization: decreasing avoidable admissions, readmissions, and emergency department visits, as well as increasing generic medication fills. As demonstrated in various local and national ACO initiatives, when hospitals, providers, and payer groups collaborate, they tend to succeed in that goal. Health care utilization decreases, post-discharge care improves, and efforts are streamlined to minimize duplication. These activities have yielded a significant return on investment...
CMS/HHS Propose Rule Allowing Providers to Use 2011 CEHRT for 2014 Meaningful Use Reporting
CMS announced today a proposal to allow providers and hospitals to continue to use 2011, or a combination of 2011 and 2014, certified technology for reporting on Meaningful Use in 2014. This could bring much needed relief to providers or hospitals that were struggling to upgrade their EHRs, and may not mean anything to those that are already using 2014 certified technology. The document indicates that it is open for public comment for the next 60 days, which pushes us...
Avoid Meaningful Use Penalties: Check Your Hospital-based Status
Do you have providers in your organization who have crossed from being exempt from Meaningful Use (MU) requirements to being subject to meeting them—and are subject to penalties if they do not? The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) defines a provider as hospital-based if 90% or more of his or her services are provided in an inpatient or emergency department setting. Some providers work primarily in a hospital setting, such as emergency department (ED) physicians or Hospitalists, and also...
Leverage Your Healthcare Data for Business Insights
As more information is transitioned to electronic format, the possibilities for using data to address healthcare business needs are nearly limitless.
Population Health Drives Need for Data Governance
Can you meet your organization’s population health management needs without a strong data governance program? In order to maintain revenue, maximize incentive payments, and minimize financial penalties as healthcare payment mechanisms evolve, you need strong population management. Population management gives you the means to identify patients at various levels of clinical and financial risk and provides an innovative capability to address the needs of those patients. Having sound, complete data is at the heart of successful population management. That data enables...
ICD-10 Announcement: Freed Associates Response
On April 1, 2014, President Obama signed H.R. 4302, Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014. Within this bill there is an ICD-10 delay provision which states: "The Secretary of Health and Human Services may not, prior to October 1, 2015, adopt ICD-10 code sets as the standard for code sets under section 1173(c) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1320d-2(c)) and section 162.1002 of title 45, Code of Federal Regulations." While the industry awaits news from CMS, we...