Easy Ways Your Bariatric Surgery Center Can Support American Heart Month in February 2017 Written by web_developers on February 1, 2017. Posted in Bariatric Surgery, Connect. Although we provide patient management solutions for all types of hospitals and clinics, a significant percentage of partners are bariatric surgery centers. With February being American Heart Month, we thought it would be best to position our tips for supporting American Heart Month in the context of bariatric surgery center marketing and patient management—however, they can easily be used by general healthcare providers and many other specialties or centers of excellence. [tweet “…tips for supporting American Heart Month in the context of bariatric surgery center marketing…”] Linking Bariatric Surgery, Diabetes and American Heart Month It is not hard to connect the dots between bariatric surgery, diabetes and promoting heart health in conjunction with American Heart Month. But don’t just take our word for it! For instance, the American Heart Association last year published a release, Bariatric Surgery May Reduce Heart Failure Risk, in which it found bariatric surgery “can significantly reduce the risk of heart failure in obese patients.” It further explained that the “reduced risk of heart failure may be due to bariatric surgery’s effects on other risk factors of heart failure, including diabetes, hypertension and atrial fibrillation.” The American Diabetes Association is quite aligned with the American Heart Association’s position. According to its Living With Diabetes Web guide for related complications, “people with diabetes have a higher-than-average risk of having a heart attack or stroke. Additionally, it said “there’s a big link between diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. In fact, two out of three people with diabetes die from heart disease or stroke, also called cardiovascular disease.” Promote Your Bariatric Surgery Center’s Heart Health Programs Your bariatric surgery center likely already has programs, online content and print collateral that advocate lifestyle improvements that can directly or indirectly improve heart health. For example, the National Health Information Center’s American Heart Month Toolkit offers several suggestions, including: • Quitting smoking and avoiding secondhand smoke • Controlling cholesterol and blood pressure • Drink alcohol only in moderation • Better weight management Create a Branded Blood Pressure Wallet Card (and Other Great CDC Ideas) Speaking of print collateral, the Centers for Disease Control’s Strong Men Put Their Hearts First page provides a wealth of ideas and resources for supporting American Heart Month. One of their standout resources invites guests to print and distribute a CDC-branded blood pressure wallet card for tracking blood pressure. This is a superb concept for bariatric surgery center marketing teams to create their own branded versions—and to perhaps improve upon with input from your bariatric surgeons and nurses! Bonus tip: Do a small-batch print run that mentions American Heart Month and give these out in February and then do another run for the rest of the year. Any extra American Heart Month versions can be saved for next year! Go Red for Women! Go Red for Women is the American Heart Association’s national movement to end heart disease and stroke in women. Its Get Involved page shares multiple ways that your bariatric surgery center and its patients can show support, including an opportunity to join a heart disease research study. Use Social Media for #AmericanHeartMonth Awareness Along with using social media to share and find useful information related to American Heart Month (including trending hashtags such as #cervicalhealthmonth and #goredforwomen), it’s also an excellent opportunity to expand your networks. For instance, if you don’t already, here are some worthy Twitter accounts you might want to follow: • @American_Heart, the official Twitter page for the American Heart Association • @GoRedForWomen, the official Twitter page for Go Red For Women • @MillionHeartsUS, the official Twitter page for Million Hearts, a national initiative to prevent one million heart attacks & strokes Not sure what to write in your Tweets? Healthfinder.gov has created a list of American Heart Month sample tweets that can get you in the right direction! Sequence Health proudly supports American Heart Month. For more about our company and our patient management platform Sequence, please contact us.
Three Key Metrics To Control Post-Acute Care Costs And Optimize CJR Reimbursements Written by web_developers on January 27, 2017. Posted in Orthopedics. After spending last weekend with a group of clinicians, administrators and healthcare executives at the Interdisciplinary Conference on Orthopedic Value-Based Care, one thing is clear: Bundled payments implemented by Medicare’s Comprehensive Joint Replacement program are shaking up the foundation of how every stakeholder must address joint replacement therapy. The Comprehensive Joint Replacement Program represents much more than reimbursement reform — value-based care is transforming how healthcare is delivered, leaving many wondering how to best position themselves to maximize revenue and mitigate risk. With so many stakeholders involved, it seems extremely complicated to identify and manage the drivers of expenses that CJR seeks to control. The first step to a sound bundled payment strategy begins with an examination of current processes and realignment to create a multi-disciplinary and team-based system of coordinated care that is centered around the patient. Then, the data shows that most of the variation in episode costs, and thus the opportunity for improvement, can be tracked to post-acute care (PAC) utilization. Optimizing this portion of the episode is a key focal point for hospitals operating under CJR regulations, and tracking metrics associated with this recovery period is core to any successful CJR strategy. There are three important metrics related to PAC that should be analyzed to help identify and eliminate the barriers to maintaining healthy margins when subject to bundled payments for joint replacements. Percentage of patients discharged directly to their homes – It’s fairly obvious that patients discharged to private homes cost much less than those that require institutional post-acute care, so tracking that data is imperative. As a rule of thumb, hospitals that discharge 50 percent or more of joint replacement patients to their homes are healthy programs. Increasing this metric over time will require coordination with all stakeholders. Dashboards are effective tools to tracking this important driver of success. Length of stay in institutional facilities – PAC spending accounts for 44 percent of total episode costs for knee replacements, and length of stay in skilled nursing facilities (SNF) is the largest driver of that cost. Tracking this metric in the aggregate is important, but also examine average length of stay by facility, particularly for your largest volume SNF’s, and look for variations. This data will help you make informed decisions about your network and engage with your partners to reduce unnecessary costs. Hospital readmission rates – Hospital readmission rates vary considerably among diagnoses, and knee replacement surgery is fortunate to enjoy low rates with an average of only 7 percent. Targeting a readmission rate of 5 percent or less is a worthy goal. However, you need to also examine the costs of your readmissions, which is available in the data the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services provide to CJR hospitals. It is possible to have a low readmission rate, but high readmission costs due to catastrophic readmissions. Parsing the data on readmission rates and costs will help pinpoint issues that you can then go tackle. With the five year long trial of Comprehensive Joint Replacement Program bundled payments not even a year old and uncertainty surrounding the future of healthcare policy with the newly elected administration, many healthcare providers have not begun learning how to best comply with these changes. As of now, CMS remains committed to using alternative payments for 50 percent of all Medicare reimbursement by next year, and most hospital leaders believe value-based care is here to stay. It makes sense to begin planning for this eventuality because it involves redesigning processes and care delivery, and results in better outcomes and a better patient experience. At Sequence Health, we believe that simple low-cost technology solutions that provide real-time insight into how patients are recovering from surgery are beneficial to all healthcare providers, whether they are working within CJR requirements or simply dedicated to providing the highest quality care and reducing expenses. Let us show you how you can increase patient satisfaction, lower costs, and position for value-based care changes associated with Comprehensive Joint Replacement program.
Bundled Payments and CJR Among Key Topics of Interest at ACPM’s 2017 Orthopedic Value Based Care Conference Written by web_developers on January 17, 2017. Posted in Company Overview, Orthopedics. This week, Sequence Health founder Rich Rosenzweig and I will be making a cross-country journey to the West Coast to represent Sequence Health as an exhibitor at the American College of Perioperative Medicine’s Interdisciplinary Conference on Orthopedic Value Based Care in Newport Beach, California, on January 21–22. As one might expect, our primary objective as an exhibitor at healthcare conferences is to create awareness about our company and its patient management software and medical call center. However, we also attend these events for the same reasons as the healthcare professionals, which is to engage and learn. This is essential for us to have the expertise for developing our core services—the Sequence patient management platform and our medical call center—and to meet the constantly evolving needs of our customers. [tweet “We attend for the same reasons as the healthcare professionals: to engage and learn.”]. With that in mind, prior to attending these conferences, various departments within our company will examine the agendas for lectures and presentations that best relate best to our objectives. The very robust ACPM agenda—which includes three tracks, 21 speakers and 39 topic in just two days—features several highly relevant topics, especially for anybody that follows our blog and is aware of our interest in these concepts. Top Bundled Payments Topics Our Director of Marketing and Creative Kris Altiere is eager for us to learn more about bundled payments, which was recently discussed in our blog, BPCI Initiative Year 2 Lessons Learned. Kris identified four excellent bundled payments topics that will be explored at ACPM: • The Bundle Payment Health Care Environment, Recent, Current, Future (Kevin J. Bozic, MD, MBA | Saturday, Jan. 21 from 8–8.40 a.m.) • Perioperative Surgical Home & Enhanced Recovery in the World of MACRA/MIPS & Value Care World (Zeev Kain, M.D., MBA | Saturday, Jan. 21 from 8.40–9.20 a.m.) • Understanding Post-Acute Care in the World of Bundling (Kelly C. Price | Sunday, Jan. 22 from 8.45–9.30 a.m.) • Bundle Payment: The Orthopedic Surgeon View (James D. Slover, MD, MS | Sunday, Jan. 22 from 10.20–10.50 a.m.) She is particularly enthused about the last topic because of its valuable insight into how orthopedic surgeons are responding to the bundled payments model. [tweet “Valuable insight into how orthopedic surgeons are responding to the bundled payments model.”] Top CJR Topics Comprehensive joint replacement (CJR) has become a focus of interest for us we are routinely fine-tuning the Sequence platform for orthopedic hospitals and clinics so that they can improve outcomes and reduce costs. In fact, we also recently wrote a blog that discussed this very concept, How are MACRA and CJR Connected? [tweet “…for orthopedic hospitals and clinics so that they can improve outcomes and reduce costs.”] Naturally, we are keen to learn as much as we can from these four CJR topics: • Fundamentals of the CJR Rule & Coming Bundles (Kelly C. Price | Saturday, Jan. 21 from 1.45–2.15 p.m.) • Using Data to Develop CJR Strategies: 5 Steps to Take Now (Jonathan W. Pearce, CPA, FHFMA | Saturday, Jan. 21 from 1.45–2.15 p.m. • Implementing CJR: Have You Taken the Steps? (David Janiec | Saturday, Jan. 21 from 3.35–4.05 p.m.) • Performing in CJR: What to do Next (David Janiec | Sunday, Jan. 22 from 1.15–1.45 p.m.) The third topic is of particular interest because we promote our capabilities in guiding orthopedic facilities to implement CJR. John Richmond is Sequence Health’s CEO. Please let us know if you’d like to schedule some time to meet with him or Rich at ACPM’s conference to learn more about our solutions for orthopedic patien
How Might Repealing Obamacare Affect Medicare Reimbursements? Written by web_developers on January 5, 2017. Posted in Other. Keeping up with the latest changes to Medicare reimbursements—whether they are actual changes, proposed changes, or just speculation—is always a challenge. However, with a new Presidential administration preparing for when President-elect Donald Trump is sworn-in in a couple weeks, the rumors are definitely more intense than ever…especially after Trump’s campaign promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) immediately after he is inaugurated. However, that poses yet another challenge for healthcare administrators that are affected by Medicare reimbursements: Along with simply keeping up with the headlines and reactions, there is the added complexity of not being distracted by partisan politics and other subjective anticipations or interpretations. In that context, here is a digest of expectations, analyses and non-partisan opinions about potential changes to Medicare reimbursements in 2017 and beyond. [Tweet “…here is a digest about potential changes to Medicare reimbursements in 2017 and beyond.”] Repealing Obamacare: Will It Happen? It’s almost impossible to discuss the Medicare reimbursements without address the potential for ACA being repealed. Prior to the election, there was no doubt about Donald Trump and Mike Pence’s intentions to repeal Obamacare. In fact, their campaign Website’s position statement, “Healthcare Reform to Make America Again” made it crystal clear: “On day one of the Trump Administration, we will ask Congress to immediately deliver a full repeal of Obamacare.” However, since the election, things have become less certain. In its statement, “TrumpCare Explained”, ObamacareFacts.com said: “However, after a meeting with President Obama [shortly after Trump won the election], President-elect Trump has suggested he will either amend ObamaCare or repeal and replace it.” Yesterday, the LA Times article “Obama and Pence Visit Capitol Hill to Rally Opposing sides on Obamacare” said that “It’s unclear what, exactly, Trump is recommending” and that “Republicans are in a bind over their efforts to repeal the law.” However, it is a Law360.com article, “Health Care Policy to Watch in 2017” that perhaps provides the most concise explaination of what to expect with Obamacare: “Experts say the end result is anyone’s guess.” One reason that is is so difficult to find a solid answer to the “Will Obamacare be repealed?” question is because it is closely tied to two other questions: When would it be repealed and what would replace it? “It might take as many as three more years to unwind the gears of the Affordable Care Act, especially when it comes to Medicare,” according to the FiscalTimes.com article “Trump’s Dilemma: Can He Repeal Obamacare Without Killing Medicare?” Law360.com further suggests that the answers are murky because of the potential of a “repeal and delay” approach where Congress could repeal Obamacare immediately, “but delay the effective date of repeal by a few years—without simultaneously passing a replacement law.” Repealing Obamacare: If It Happens, What Happens to Medicare Reimbursements? [Tweet “For the sake of argument, assume that indeed Obamacare is repealed. What happens?”] For the sake of argument, assume that indeed Obamacare is repealed. What happens? One thing is certain: It will affect Medicare reimbursements. The Forbes.com article “How Trump’s Plan To Gut Obamacare Will Take Down Medicare.” explains: “Although Trump said during the campaign that he wouldn’t touch Medicare or Social Security—he wouldn’t have secured enough Electoral College votes if he had—tearing apart Obamacare will almost certainly raise costs for Medicare beneficiaries and hasten its decline as a guaranteed, fee-for-service system.” Of course, there are varying opinions about the potential impacts. For instance, it may mostly be a matter of disruption for healthcare administrators, according to a HealthcareITNews.com article with a very self-explanatory title, “ACA Repeal Could Make ACOs, MACRA, Medicare Shared Savings and CMS CMMI More Complicated”. Another suggested impact is that reducing or elminating Medicare (and for that matter, Medicaid) funding will trigger a series of events that may result in financial losses into the billions for hospitals, according to The Hill.com in its article “So What Would Happen If We Repealed ObamaCare?”: “If you remove tens of millions of people from the rolls of the insurance carriers because subsidies are eliminated and Medicaid expansion is defunded, if young adults ages 18 to 26 lose coverage, as well as those with pre-existing conditions, where do those who lose coverage go for care? As you might have guessed, it is your local hospital emergency room. This will result in tens of billions of dollars in uncompensated care being provided by our hospitals. Prior to the enactment of ObamaCare, uncompensated care provided by hospitals in our communities was in the range of $75 billion to $125 billion.” For the moment (and perhaps for the next months or even years), Medicare is still here, and for that matter, so are new programs such as MACRA, which was rolled out days ago on January 1, 2017). In as much as you should be prepared for changes to Medicare reimbursement for whenever they occur (and for whatever reasons), it’s even more important to do what you can now to ensure the best outcomes for your Medicare patients, which can be improved with a reliable and efficient patient management system. [Tweet “…do what you can now to ensure the best outcomes for your Medicare patients…“] If your facility seeks proven, qualified guidance and support to successfully participate in the MACRA rollout, please contact Sequence Health to learn about our solutions.
Five Easy Ways Your Women’s Health or Cancer Treatment Center Can Support Cervical Health Awareness Month in January 2017 Written by web_developers on January 3, 2017. Posted in Connect, Women's Health. Now that the winter holidays are over, it’s time to get back into the swing of things with marketing and promoting your healthcare facility. This is particularly true if you hospital or clinic offers women’s health services or has a cancer treatment centers, because January is national Cervical Health Awareness Month. The National Cervical Cancer Coalition estimates that approximately 13,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year. However, because cervical cancer is preventable—especially in conjunction with cervical cancer screenings—the American Cancer Society reports that the cervical cancer death rate has declined by more than 50 percent in the past 30 years. Additionally, the American Cancer Society relates the decline to greater numbers of human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccines given to children, which is linked to most cases of cervical cancer. Your women’s health or cancer treatment center likely already has strategies for creating awareness about cervical health and encouraging cervical cancer screenings. However, with January being national Cervical Health Awareness Month, there are some excellent tips and resources available that can help you continue those objectives and support this important cause. Here are five to stimulate some of your own ideas! Update Your Website with Calls to Action for Cervical Cancer Screenings Creating banners and other call to action graphics that encourage cervical cancer screenings at your facility is perhaps the first and most important step to take, especially if you position them to include Cervical Health Awareness Month messaging. Likewise, if you have patient management software that enables you to port Website visitors directly to your appointment setting page, your call-to-action graphics can make it even easier for them to find and schedule a cervical health screening. Create Content to Promote Cervical Health Awareness and Cervical Cancer Prevention If you have the resources, consider generating other types of online and print content, such as infographics that quickly explain what cervical cancer and HPV are and how they can be prevented and treated. Another suggestion would be to collect testimonials—especially video testimonials—from people that were able to use your cervical screenings for early detection and your cancer treatment center. Include Cervical Health Awareness in Your Newsletters and e-Mail Campaigns One of the most difficult aspects of producing a monthly newsletter or other type of regularly published e-mail campaign is finding subjects that will be of interest to your recipients. Events such as Cervical Health Awareness Month are ideal in this situation because you can offer short, simple messages if space is tight…or you can provide more expanded information if you have space to fill. Use Social Media for #CervicalHealthMonth Awareness Along with using social media to share and find useful information related to Cervical Health Awareness month (including trending hashtags such as #cervicalhealthmonth, it’s also an excellent opportunity to expand your networks. For instance, if you don’t already, here are some worthy Twitter accounts you might want to follow: • @infoASHA, which is heading a Thunderclap to end cervical cancer • @StopHPVcancer, which is the National Cervical Cancer Coalition’s Twitter • @_cervicalcancer, which is the account for CC Awareness, a cervical cancer awareness organization Visit the National Cervical Cancer Association’s Website for Content and Ideas The NCCC’s Cervical Cancer Awareness Month page provides even more ideas and several outstanding print and online resources, including: • Free fact sheet download, Ten Things to Know About HPV • Free eBook, HPV & Cervical Cancer: Stories from Survivors and Supporters • Cervical Cancer Awareness Month posters Likewise, the American Cancer Association also has a Cervical Health Awareness Month page that shares an equally superb collection of resources. Sequence Health proudly supports Cervical Health Awareness Month. For more about our company and our patient management software solution, Sequence, please contact us.
Why & How to Get Accreditation for Cardiovascular Excellence (ACE) Written by web_developers on December 14, 2016. Posted in Other. In order to position your hospital or practice as a specialized cardiovascular center, an outside accreditation can compel you to improve quality of care and patient standards. Earning Accreditation for Cardiovascular Excellence (ACE) has an important role in how hospitals with cardiovascular centers of excellence can differentiate themselves and increase reputation and public perception. Sponsored by the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI), ACE exists solely to evaluate and accredit excellence in heart health. The third party, physician-led organization reviews, evaluates, and certifies hospitals and other facilities in numerous cardiovascular subspecialties, including: • Carotid Artery Stenting Accreditation • Cath/PCI Accreditation • Congenital Heart Disease Accreditation for PCCL • Diagnostic Catheterization Accreditation • Electrophysiology Accreditation • Peripheral Vascular Intervention Accreditation Although not all programs will be a good fit for each hospital, seeking ACE accreditation is an important step in developing a positive public and professional perception. Facilities recognized for excellence are more likely to: • Be rated higher both locally and nationally • Reduce the expenses associated with managing patient care • Minimize the risks and complications of challenging procedures ACE Accreditation Process The ACE review process is complex and comprehensive, providing a thorough way for to empirically evaluate both management and delivery of care for cardiovascular centers of excellence. However, success may depend on a facility’s willingness to overhaul previously acceptable standards. Evaluations by ACE are performed using gold-standard peer-reviewed criteria, putting committee members on the ground in your facility to determine standards of care, patient management, staff proficiency, and more. According to the ACE Website, the path to accreditation includes: • Completing an Online Application: An in-house review of the application is performed by ACE staff to ensure completeness. • Data Review: Nurse and physician reviewers will be assigned to review application data and identify potential issues or items that require further clarification. Physician reviewers are selected from a multidisciplinary pool of experienced carotid stent, vascular medicine, and neurologic clinicians that are consistent with the physicians who perform CAS at the applicant institution. • Site Visit: All facilities will be subject to an onsite review by a team of experienced, trained and objective nurse reviewers. The review includes: • Chart audits • Peer review • Physical inspection • Review of outcomes • Interviews with key personnel • Reviews of standard operating procedures • Angiography Review: A random collection of angiographic studies will be collected for independent review. These studies are evaluated for image quality, adherence to angiographic standards and appropriateness. The Importance of Patient Care Coordination and ACE Accreditation Although ACE accreditation puts a strong focus on comprehensive facility operations, improvements in all areas of your practice can help you secure the certifications you deserve—which includes patient care coordination. Of course, improving your organizational practices won’t only help your achieve your accreditation goals, but they will also enable you to: • Reduce costs • Decrease discrepancies • Comprehensively serve the patient from beginning to end • Provide assessments • Manage your patients and your care team in the most efficient way If you are considering getting Accreditation for Cardiovascular Excellence for your facility, be sure to fully understand what is involved so that you—and your patients—may experience the many advantages of being ACE certified. Sequence Health can support your journey through the ACE accreditation process. Contact us if you need assistance ensuring your facility’s compliance with cardiovascular excellence accreditation standards or would like to improve patient care coordination.
How to Choose the Best Medical Call Center Written by web_developers on December 14, 2016. Posted in Manage. If you have been thinking about how to choose the best medical call center for your hospital, clinic or other healthcare facility, you likely have been carefully mulling over numerous considerations. Sequence Health, a medical call center provider with more than a decade of experience, understands that the decision requires extensive thought. The following are among the most important considerations for you as you either begin or conclude your process for narrowing down your choice of top medical call centers. What Advantages Will You Gain From Having a Medical Call Center? There is no one-size-fits-all solution for healthcare systems in search of medical call center service providers. For that matter, the potential advantages of having a call center can vary from facility to facility, which include: • Reduced waiting times • Improved patient retention rates • More efficient use of facility staff As your needs and expectations will also be unique to your facility, knowing them in advance will better prepare you to know which medical call center can best satisfy your objectives. Why Would You Choose a Particular Medical Center Service Versus Another? Naturally, knowing how much a medical call center service costs will be a key factor in your decision. Likewise, knowing your budget place can also help you differentiate how well one service versus another can meet your needs. However, the value for what you are buying can vary greatly and why you should consider other factors, such as: • Reputation: How well regarded is the service? Is it an innovator with proven experience? Can they provide testimonials? • Customization and Scalability: Do they offer a variety of services, including a nurse triage service that can be crafted into an ideal system that meets your needs and budget? Knowing the answers and being able to prioritize them can significantly help the decisionmaking process—especially if the decision will be made by several people or departments. Who is Involved in the Decisionmaking Process? Hospitals in particular often require buy-in from various departments and committees when choosing new vendors and suppliers, and a medical call center is no exception. Identifying your facility’s stakeholders and decisionmakers is crucial, especially so you can understand their priorities and expectations before engaging with potential medical call center service providers. How Well Does the Medical Call Center Service Support HIPAA Compliance and Confidentiality? Trusting an outside company to handle your medical call center is not just a matter of ensuring that they will protect and support your brand, but also to ensure that they can fully support HIPAA compliance and patient confidentiality. Who are Your Patients? Although your call center may serve all of your patients, you might have specific demographics (e.g., seniors) or conditions/treatments for which you anticipate more frequent call volumes. Having a firm grasp on this is important because it prepares you to determine if your call center service has the resources and experience to satisfy your patients. Where are You and Your Patients Located? Geography is an often overlooked concept for finding the best medical call center. For instance: • Do your patients live exclusively within your state, or do you serve multiple states or regions? • Do you serve areas that have a high percentage of people that speak languages other than English? When Would You Expect to Use Your Medical Call Center Service? Some busy hospitals may choose to have a 24/7 medical call center, as where a smaller clinic may prefer to only have an after-hours medical call center. When Would You Want to Launch Your Medical Call Center Service? How soon would you want to start using a medical call center service? Would it be a phased rollout that would first use the call center for after-hours but then would eventually become a full-time service? Who Will be Responsible for Coordination Between Your Facility and the Call Center? After you choose a medical center service, you will want to ensure a seamless transition, both with its introduction and regular transfers of incoming calls. Knowing who will be responsible for that coordination in advance will prepare you to gauge how much training and customer support will be needed from your service provider. If you have more questions about how to choose a medical call center or would like more information about Sequence Health’s medical call center solutions, please contact us.
Why & How to Get AAAHC Ambulatory Health Care Accreditation Written by web_developers on December 5, 2016. Posted in Other. Ambulatory health care accreditation is an often overlooked step in improving your ambulatory care outcomes and reputation. One of the leaders in this is the Accreditation Association of Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC), which has been providing approval for ambulatory care facilities since 1979. Through the use of a peer-based review and evaluation program, AAAHC examines all areas of medical institutions, including: • Quality of care • Use of facilities • Adherence to best practices • Management methodology AAAHC accreditation is highly respected in primary care fields, and their certification validates your medical practice’s willingness to exceed minimum expectations for quality ambulatory patient care. Because AAAHC offers certification only for healthcare practices that demonstrate comprehensive compliance with stated criteria, earning AAAHC ambulatory health care accreditation is a vital part of maintaining a well-reputed clinic that provides quality care. AAAHC Accreditation Process AAAHC accreditation is a multi-step process that requires a thorough review of your current ambulatory health care practices. In order to be as successful as possible during the evaluation process, AAAHC has outlined several steps designed to assist hospitals and practices: • Perform a Self-Evaluation: Prior to bringing in an official team of surveyors, ambulatory health care facilities are urged to read the current AAAHC Handbook and self-assess compliance with all required criteria. If expectations are not maintained in full, adjustments should be made prior to continuing. • Submit a Survey Application: In order to begin the ambulatory health care accreditation review process, facilities must submit a survey application. Once received, the AAAHC will determine the timeline necessary, the number of surveyors required, and the applicable fee. • Prepare for Evaluation: Surveyor visits are arranged in advance. Hospitals and clinics should prepare prior to the scheduled date, ensuring all AAAHC Handbook requirements are met and displayed appropriately. This may involve: • Facility cleaning • Technology evaluation and repair • Extra staffing to meet the needs of the review team The Importance of EHR Management and Ambulatory Health Care Accreditation Electronic health records (EHR) have become a standard in modern ambulatory health care. As a result, an inability to meet expectations may compromise your ability to secure the certifications of excellence your hospital or care center deserves. Demonstrating effective patient care coordination for ambulatory health care accreditation goes beyond what skills and procedures you physicians can perform. Instead, it also evaluates how well you organize data, especially as it relates to the patient experience. Regardless of which ambulatory health care accreditation organization you use, EHR management will likely be a crucial factor in your success. As you prepare for ambulatory health care accreditation, be sure to examine your capabilities for EHR and: • Appropriately handled first contacts • High standards and HIPAA compliance throughout appointments and treatments • Proper billing practices Sequence Health can support your journey through the AAAHC accreditation process. Contact us if you need assistance ensuring your facility’s compliance with ambulatory health care accreditation standards or would like to improve patient care coordination.
BPCI Initiative Year 2 Lessons Learned Written by web_developers on November 29, 2016. Posted in Orthopedics. Top Results from CMS’ Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Initiative Progress Report The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid recently published CMS Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Initiative Models 2-4: Year 2 Evaluation & Monitoring Annual Report. If you have been following the recent developments of either the BPCI initiative or the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement mode (CJR), you are likely aware of their functions and similarities. If not, here’s a quick overview. First, the BPCI initiative is a voluntary pilot program that is testing an alternative to the traditional fee-for-service reimbursement model that pays a hospital or clinic whenever it provides treatment—regardless of outcome. Bundled payments, on the other hand, link all healthcare providers for an episode—such as hip or knee replacement surgeries that involve various treatments—and then evaluates outcomes of cost and performance. CJR was introduced earlier this year to test a new reimbursement model for Medicare hip and knee replacement surgeries. Also known as lower extremity joint replacements (LEJRs), it is one of Medicare’s most common inpatient surgeries. Both BPCI and CJR are designed to reward hospitals (or participant physician groups, in the case of BPCI) for improving care coordination and achieving cost savings aligned with a target price determined by CMS based on the participant’s historical performance. When the hospital reduces episode costs below the target price, they receive a share of the savings. If payments remain above the target price, the hospital may owe a reconciliation payment to CMS. Since the CJR program and the BPCI initiative are similar in structure and design (with 83 percent of BPCI episodes included in the CMS report identified as orthopedic episodes) there are lessons to be learned in the report and applied to organizations affected by CJR and other burgeoning bundled payment initiatives. Some top takeaways: Post-Acute Care Management is Key to BPCI Episode Spending BPCI initiative participants that saw the most reduction in episode spending were those that achieved a marked decrease in SNF (skilled nursing facility) utilization, some up to almost five percent reduction compared to baseline. BPCI Care Quality is Not Suffering The BPCI initiative has its share of critics that are justifiably concerned about its potentially negative impacts on quality. However, the orthopedic BPCI data is thus far indicating that quality outcomes have remained high for participants, with no significant changes from baseline. BPCI is Resulting in Episode Payment Savings This early data shows that almost 90 percent of BPCI participants achieved a decline in episode payments. There has been an estimated $2000 per-episode average decline in payments correlated with appropriate utilization of post-acute care facilities and decrease in length of stay, among other factors. Patient Management Proving to be Crucial BPCI Success Factor Those that are targeting patient management resources are seeing the successes outlined above. This includes: • Workflow redesign • Care coordination • Case management • Patient navigation Although there is still not a universally agreed upon set of best practices for patient management and BPCI success, the data is indicating that a combination of activities are pulling healthcare providers in the right direction, such as: • Leadership buy-in • Resource allocation • Patient-centered care teams With these lessons learned from the BPCI Year 2 Evaluation, do you have the tools you need to be successful in CJR? Contact Sequence Health to learn how you can optimize the patient care coordination process using the Sequence platform.
Sequence Health Reflects on ObesityWeek 2016 Exhibition Written by web_developers on November 16, 2016. Posted in Manage. It’s the end of November, which means that we’re once again returning from ObesityWeek, much as we have done for the past several years where we’ve attended as exhibitors! Although each one is special for us, this year’s ObesityWeek 2016 in New Orleans will be remembered for it being our first time attending as Sequence Health. Previously, we had attended under our former moniker MDnetSolutions at numerous ObesityWeek events, including ObesityWeek 2015 in Los Angeles, ObesityWeek2014 in Boston and ObesityWeek2013 in Atlanta. As always, we had a wonderful time at ObesityWeek. Professionally speaking, we were very appreciative for the overwhelmingly positive feedback after debuting our improved Sequence patient relationship management platform and support services. We also were grateful for opportunities to engage with customers and to learn more about how their bariatric hospitals are responding to the innovations, advancements and changes in obesity surgery, prevention, research and public policy. Were you able to make it to New Orleans for ObesityWeek 2016—and if so, were you one of the hundreds of attendees that got to spend time with us at our booth or elsewhere at the event? If you were able to visit us, you probably remember that we held a drawing for two free Fitbit Charge giveaways, which helped make a visit to our booth a little more exciting for all…and especially the winners (congrats again!). Of course, it wasn’t all work and no play for Sequence Health at ObesityWeek 2016! After spending time on the exhibitor floor each day, we were able to explore incredibly unique city of New Orleans, which is something you also hopefully got to do in-between Obesity Week 2016 seminars and other events you attended. Don’t Forget to Claim Your ObesityWeek 2016 Credits! Like us, you probably returned from ObesityWeek 2016 and immediately returned to your regular routines at home and work. However, we want to remind you that if you haven’t already, please be sure to claim your credits for courses at ObesityWeek 2016. If you would like to learn more about Sequence, our new patient relationship management platform that helps bariatric facilities improve volume growth, efficiency gains, and better patient outcomes, please contact us.