I recently attended the MEDITECH 2017 Physician and CIO Forum at MEDITECH's Foxborough campus.
It was truly an honor to be invited to attend the conference over the past couple years. The turnout for the forum was very good, over 400 MEDITECH users. This was the largest MEDITECH Physician and CIO Forum I've attended.
The past couple years I've had the opportunity to present at the forum as a subject matter expert on Clinical Quality Reporting including MACRA, MIPS, IQR and eCQMs. This year I took a break from presentations, allowing me more time to attend a number of great educational sessions.
Great keynote from Dave Williams MD, OC, OOnt, MSc, CM, FCFP, FRCP, LLD (Hon), DSc (Hon), Retired CEO and President, Southlake Regional Health Centre, Astronaut and Aquanaut. Dave is a former Astronaut who flew on missions Columbia and Endeavor. Dave is an incredibly accomplished individual. Dave has accomplished in one lifetime what many people need multiple lives to achieve.
Web Ambulatory integration with BCA
Clinicians will be able to view their quality measures from Web Ambulatory with a link from the web application.
Most MEDITECH facilities don't have a single consolidated EHR system in their network. To address this constraint, MEDITECH has partnered with Arcadia solutions. Arcadia Solutions has been selected as the data integration and aggregation partner for integration with 3rd party systems for claims and clinical documentation.
APIs and Phone Apps
API’s – getting at MEDITECH data and pulling this into 3rd party systems. Healthcare organization and developers will be able to utilize APIs to integrate mobile devices, patient portals, iPhone Apps and platforms that need access to data outside of the traditional HL7 ADT, orders and results methods.
The data elements are available under the MU Stage 3 certification development under Patient Health Data API. This will be limited to pulling data out of MEDITECH not pushing data to MEDITECH. For sending data to MEDITECH, the traditional method of HL7 will still be the only option.
FHIR Adoption
FHIR adoption was mentioned and MEDITECH is investing in research and development to support FHIR natively in their application. This first project to be available to clients will be FHIR based CCDs. MEDITECH highlight they will be the first EHR vendor with a FHIR based CCD. That is exciting news for MEDITECH. MEDITECH has embraced the industry as it moves toward FHIR.
This was a great MEDITECH conference and they have continued to increase turnout, year over year. The education sessions have meaningful content and keynote speakers are top of the line.
It's always a great time connecting with colleagues and past colleagues.
Can't wait until next year!
Saturday, December 16, 2017
Sunday, October 29, 2017
Dispatch from Becker's IT and Revenue Cycle Conference 2017
I have checked out of the Acme Hotel!
I recently attended The Becker's Hospital IT and Revenue Cycle Conference in Chicago. It was an honor to be asked to speak at the conference and part of the event.
Thank you to those who attended my presentation. Jodi Frei and I presented to a packed audience with over 100+ people in attendance. We spoke about Revenue Cycle Optimization: Tools and Strategies for Successfully understanding your revenue at risk in your organization. We discussed strategies to improve efficiencies in registration, insurance authorization, clinical documentation improvement, supply chain and denials management.
Jodi shared financial lessons learned from Northwestern Medical Center having recently completed a 12-month system upgrade and rebuild to MEDITECH's 6.1 platform. Metrics that matter, strategies to best prevent revenue loss in times of transition, and optimization of quality based reimbursement are among the topics to be covered.
For the past 2 years, I've had the privilege of presenting at Becker's. This year I focused on the quality reporting and revenue at risk in healthcare organizations. Healthcare organizations are transitioning from volume-based to value-based care reimbursement models. The future for healthcare organizations includes value-based care models, advanced payment models, and bundled payments so it makes sense to provide some insight into how this is and will impact revenue cycle management.
The Becker's Health IT and Revenue Cycle conference has significantly grown over the past couple years. There were over 3000 registered attendees at the three-day show, a record, up 500% from last year. Last year, Pavan Attur, Chief Information Officer at St Michael's Medical Centre in New Jersey, and I presented on Meaningful Use Audit preparedness and working effectively with Figliozzi & Company during the audit so you can avoid a financial recoupment.
Here's my summary of the major event themes for 2017:
I explored some of the most famous sights in Chicago with colleagues and friends. The first night we eat with a small group at Quartino's Ristorante for an authentic Italian meal. We ordered one of everything on the menu, so much food!
We did the walk up North Michigan Ave. up to North Rush Street, had dinner at Dublin Bar and Grill, on the way back stopped by The Redhead Piano Bar to enjoy some classic songs with the pianist. We stopped by the Dublin Bar & Grill for some Irish pub specials on draft.
The last day we stopped by the Indian Garden Restaurant for some quite all you can eat buffet lunch. Everything was great, the naan, the spicing curry chicken, shrimp curry, the goat biryani. My good friend Pavan selected the restaurant. He is an incredible cook and loves Indian food. I like to learn about the culture of the food I'm eating. I learned about the Mukhwas you eat at the end of the meal. Near the exit, there is an assortment of seeds, sugar candy, and oils. He explained the Mukhwas is more than an after-snack meal but helpful with aiding the digestive tract and helps as a mouth freshener. I'm still trying to acquire a taste for the after-meal snack, Mukhwas, maybe soon!
Ed Marx gave an inspirational and motivational keynote speech. Pavan introduced me to Ed last year at Becker's. He has inspired me to be a better person, manager, and leader at my company. He is truly a great person.
I left the Becker's conference with excitement. The Healthcare landscape is in a significant technological transformation and we are right in the middle of it. It's a great time to be in healthcare.
I'll be communicating my analysis of the ONC Certification Program Updates published back in September.
I recently attended The Becker's Hospital IT and Revenue Cycle Conference in Chicago. It was an honor to be asked to speak at the conference and part of the event.
Thank you to those who attended my presentation. Jodi Frei and I presented to a packed audience with over 100+ people in attendance. We spoke about Revenue Cycle Optimization: Tools and Strategies for Successfully understanding your revenue at risk in your organization. We discussed strategies to improve efficiencies in registration, insurance authorization, clinical documentation improvement, supply chain and denials management.
Jodi shared financial lessons learned from Northwestern Medical Center having recently completed a 12-month system upgrade and rebuild to MEDITECH's 6.1 platform. Metrics that matter, strategies to best prevent revenue loss in times of transition, and optimization of quality based reimbursement are among the topics to be covered.
For the past 2 years, I've had the privilege of presenting at Becker's. This year I focused on the quality reporting and revenue at risk in healthcare organizations. Healthcare organizations are transitioning from volume-based to value-based care reimbursement models. The future for healthcare organizations includes value-based care models, advanced payment models, and bundled payments so it makes sense to provide some insight into how this is and will impact revenue cycle management.
The Becker's Health IT and Revenue Cycle conference has significantly grown over the past couple years. There were over 3000 registered attendees at the three-day show, a record, up 500% from last year. Last year, Pavan Attur, Chief Information Officer at St Michael's Medical Centre in New Jersey, and I presented on Meaningful Use Audit preparedness and working effectively with Figliozzi & Company during the audit so you can avoid a financial recoupment.
Here's my summary of the major event themes for 2017:
- Cybersecurity - Phishing, infrastructure security, it's not enough to educate users on the rights and wrongs of cybersecurity. Software sophisticated detection features to help prevent phishing.
- Revenue Cycle Optimization - As we transition from volume-based reimbursement to value-based, outcomes reimbursements, the revenue cycle models will significantly change and revenue cycle consultants will be positioned to be leaders in this transformation.
- Cloud-Based Software and Services - 21, the number of vendors who mentioned cloud-based software or services as their marketing material. Software as a service offerings are very popular. As the industry shifts in this direction, organizations still have concerns with privacy and security with the offerings.
- Analytics and Pop Health Reporting - Value-based care, Population Health, focusing on improving quality and outcomes with the help of predictive analytics software. Identifying and managing cohorts of patients for revenue optimization.
I explored some of the most famous sights in Chicago with colleagues and friends. The first night we eat with a small group at Quartino's Ristorante for an authentic Italian meal. We ordered one of everything on the menu, so much food!
We did the walk up North Michigan Ave. up to North Rush Street, had dinner at Dublin Bar and Grill, on the way back stopped by The Redhead Piano Bar to enjoy some classic songs with the pianist. We stopped by the Dublin Bar & Grill for some Irish pub specials on draft.
The last day we stopped by the Indian Garden Restaurant for some quite all you can eat buffet lunch. Everything was great, the naan, the spicing curry chicken, shrimp curry, the goat biryani. My good friend Pavan selected the restaurant. He is an incredible cook and loves Indian food. I like to learn about the culture of the food I'm eating. I learned about the Mukhwas you eat at the end of the meal. Near the exit, there is an assortment of seeds, sugar candy, and oils. He explained the Mukhwas is more than an after-snack meal but helpful with aiding the digestive tract and helps as a mouth freshener. I'm still trying to acquire a taste for the after-meal snack, Mukhwas, maybe soon!
Ed Marx gave an inspirational and motivational keynote speech. Pavan introduced me to Ed last year at Becker's. He has inspired me to be a better person, manager, and leader at my company. He is truly a great person.
I left the Becker's conference with excitement. The Healthcare landscape is in a significant technological transformation and we are right in the middle of it. It's a great time to be in healthcare.
I'll be communicating my analysis of the ONC Certification Program Updates published back in September.
Sunday, September 10, 2017
Revenue Cycle Optimization: Tools and Strategies for Success
The transformation has started from fee for service into value-based care models driven by the Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) program and the Quality Payment Program (QPP) which includes Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Alternative Payment Models (APM).
Healthcare organizations will no longer be motivated by implementing and meeting program requirements like Meaningful Use, but instead will be driven by value-based care and risk-based payment models that focus on quality, outcomes and wellness for reimbursements. Providers must find ways to improve the value of care they provide in a meaningful, measurable way. Providers are becoming increasingly responsible for their patient's cost and quality of care throughout the continuum, regardless of where and by whom services are provided.
As we travel down the path to value, navigating healthcare payment reform requires a significant transformation in many areas including the reimbursement model. If left unchanged, CBO's Long-Term Budget Outlook projects healthcare will make up over 20 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is projected to account for 30 percent of the US federal budget by 2025.
We are in the midst of this reimbursement transformation now. The VBP and QPP programs mark the beginning of a “new normal” characterized by fundamental changes to the reimbursement system. Reimbursement tied to quality performance has become a reality for hospitals and physicians. CMS’ aggressive goals aimed at increasing the percentage of Medicare payments associated with quality outcomes versus quantity of service create operational, procedural, and fiscal challenges. Financial as well as clinical strategies must be redesigned and executed in this new value-based care environment.
With this new payment model, organizations that create strong regional clinical teams with a keen focus on efficiencies, standards of care, and outcomes will be better positioned for success. They will share up side savings and risk down side loss given their ability to achieve high outcomes within fixed payments. This is a significant shift from the fee-for-service, claims based denial management model. It requires a new level of alignment between Quality, IT and Finance. Preparation for transition to value based reimbursement is essential but challenging as fee for service has not yet been eliminated - many organizations are juggling multiple payment models at once. Understanding the nature of each and having a strategy that forecasts to complete value based reimbursement is critical for long term sustainability.
Part of this strategy includes tightening up revenue cycle processes; rethinking EHR build and workflow design in the areas of registration, medical necessity, clinical documentation improvement, supply chain and denials management. Maintaining a high-functioning revenue cycle will also require special focus on tools and resources for reporting, tracking progress, and understanding the revenue at risk.
Medical Necessity as a service line may actually go away over time because organizations assume all the risk within bundled and capitated payment models.
Clinical Documentation Improvement is critical to identify pain points and documenting specificity and appropriateness. For example, complications and comorbidities (CCs and MCCs) can impact the total reimbursements but can also impact readmission adjustment scoring, reducing your Readmission Rate Reduction program scores. Organizations that can identify opportunities for improvement using real-time alerts within targeted areas will be better positioned for the transition.
Revenue Cycle in this era of health care reform is challenging. We all seek success under this new normal in health care. Optimizing revenue capture in a quality reimbursement model requires acquisition of new knowledge and the use of new tools and strategies.
For anyone interested in more detail on this subject, Jodi Frei and I are presenting Revenue Cycle Optimization: Tools and Strategies for Successfully understanding your revenue at risk in your organization at the Becker's Hospital Review Annual IT and Revenue Cycle Conference at the Hyatt Regency, Chicago on Friday, September 22, 2017, from 2:30 pm to 3:10 pm.
We will discuss strategies to improve efficiencies in registration, insurance authorization, clinical documentation improvement, supply chain and denials management.
Jodi will share financial lessons learned from Northwestern Medical Center having recently completed a 12-month system upgrade and rebuild to MEDITECH's 6.1 platform. Metrics that matter, strategies to best prevent revenue loss in times of transition, and optimization of quality based reimbursement are among the topics to be covered.
Come and be a part of the discussion!
Healthcare organizations will no longer be motivated by implementing and meeting program requirements like Meaningful Use, but instead will be driven by value-based care and risk-based payment models that focus on quality, outcomes and wellness for reimbursements. Providers must find ways to improve the value of care they provide in a meaningful, measurable way. Providers are becoming increasingly responsible for their patient's cost and quality of care throughout the continuum, regardless of where and by whom services are provided.
As we travel down the path to value, navigating healthcare payment reform requires a significant transformation in many areas including the reimbursement model. If left unchanged, CBO's Long-Term Budget Outlook projects healthcare will make up over 20 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is projected to account for 30 percent of the US federal budget by 2025.
We are in the midst of this reimbursement transformation now. The VBP and QPP programs mark the beginning of a “new normal” characterized by fundamental changes to the reimbursement system. Reimbursement tied to quality performance has become a reality for hospitals and physicians. CMS’ aggressive goals aimed at increasing the percentage of Medicare payments associated with quality outcomes versus quantity of service create operational, procedural, and fiscal challenges. Financial as well as clinical strategies must be redesigned and executed in this new value-based care environment.
With this new payment model, organizations that create strong regional clinical teams with a keen focus on efficiencies, standards of care, and outcomes will be better positioned for success. They will share up side savings and risk down side loss given their ability to achieve high outcomes within fixed payments. This is a significant shift from the fee-for-service, claims based denial management model. It requires a new level of alignment between Quality, IT and Finance. Preparation for transition to value based reimbursement is essential but challenging as fee for service has not yet been eliminated - many organizations are juggling multiple payment models at once. Understanding the nature of each and having a strategy that forecasts to complete value based reimbursement is critical for long term sustainability.
Part of this strategy includes tightening up revenue cycle processes; rethinking EHR build and workflow design in the areas of registration, medical necessity, clinical documentation improvement, supply chain and denials management. Maintaining a high-functioning revenue cycle will also require special focus on tools and resources for reporting, tracking progress, and understanding the revenue at risk.
Medical Necessity as a service line may actually go away over time because organizations assume all the risk within bundled and capitated payment models.
Clinical Documentation Improvement is critical to identify pain points and documenting specificity and appropriateness. For example, complications and comorbidities (CCs and MCCs) can impact the total reimbursements but can also impact readmission adjustment scoring, reducing your Readmission Rate Reduction program scores. Organizations that can identify opportunities for improvement using real-time alerts within targeted areas will be better positioned for the transition.
Revenue Cycle in this era of health care reform is challenging. We all seek success under this new normal in health care. Optimizing revenue capture in a quality reimbursement model requires acquisition of new knowledge and the use of new tools and strategies.
For anyone interested in more detail on this subject, Jodi Frei and I are presenting Revenue Cycle Optimization: Tools and Strategies for Successfully understanding your revenue at risk in your organization at the Becker's Hospital Review Annual IT and Revenue Cycle Conference at the Hyatt Regency, Chicago on Friday, September 22, 2017, from 2:30 pm to 3:10 pm.
We will discuss strategies to improve efficiencies in registration, insurance authorization, clinical documentation improvement, supply chain and denials management.
Jodi will share financial lessons learned from Northwestern Medical Center having recently completed a 12-month system upgrade and rebuild to MEDITECH's 6.1 platform. Metrics that matter, strategies to best prevent revenue loss in times of transition, and optimization of quality based reimbursement are among the topics to be covered.
Come and be a part of the discussion!
Saturday, June 17, 2017
Dispatch from MUSE 2017
This past week I was at the 2017 International MUSE Conference in Dallas Texas.
Great job to everyone from Acmeware for presenting amazing content at the DR Learning Lab workshop and education sessions. Thanks to everyone who visited the Exhibition floor.
I had a productive week with the Acmeware team. To put it into context, I spoke on stage during the week for almost 6 hours. This year I was selected as a featured speaker at the Executive Institute; I conducted a Tuesday training workshop and an I co-presented a Thursday education session. Thanks to everyone who visited us on the Exhibition floor.
Thank you to those who attended my presentation at the Executive Institute. Jodi Frei, Northwestern Medical Center Vermont (first to go-live with Web ED in the universe!), and I co-presented at the MUSE Executive Institute on Revenue at Risk: Understanding Financial Impacts of Quality Reporting. The Executive Institute featured many amazing CXO's discussing the changing landscape of revenue cycle management and how finance, quality, and IT departments are converging on revenue cycle. The Executive Institute was well attended with over 50 facility and commercial members in attendance.
The International MUSE Conference included great speakers and well-crafted content. I presented at a Tuesday training workshop titled The Alphabet Soup of Clinical Quality Measures Reporting and Reimbursement. This was the third year I presented this topic and with all the changing requirements to eCQMs, MACRA and MIPS, and Value-based purchasing. This has been and will continue to be a standard at MUSE over the next couple years.
I co-presented with Jodi on Riding the Rapids of Payment Reform: Downstream Effects of Quality Reporting on Revenue Capture. We spoke to The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) aggressive goals, aimed at increasing the percentage of Medicare payments associated with value-based care versus fee-for-service. The presentation covered programs such as Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) and MACRA being catalysts of this movement. Providers, CIOs, Quality Leaders and IT Informaticists will find this information valuable in navigating the new normal in healthcare payment reform planning for the future of health care reform.
Thursday morning Keynote presentation was given Hoda Sayed-Friel, Executive VP of MEDITECH. Hoda reviewed MEDITECH's product strategy and roadmap. She presented well-organized information on their surveillance, registry, and portal products. She provided some regulatory and compliance updates on MACRA and the MIPS reporting requirements.
Remember when I mentioned in my Dispatch from MUSE 2015 blog on MEDITECH's strategy of offering cloud-based hosted services and potentially partnering with Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google to offer low-cost cloud solutions with a zero infrastructure footprint, well it's almost here and it's called MEDITECH as a Service (MaaS). This service should be available sometime in 2018. Hoda mentioned partnering with a private cloud vendor as a low-cost MaaS options for running MEDITECH and a web-based service.
My opinion, the MEDITECH as a Service (MaaS) could provide EHR access to critical access hospitals (CAH), rural community hospitals and any small hospitals struggling to cover the high start-up costs, capital requirements and insufficient return on investment associated with purchasing an EHR. Additionally, MaaS could provide significant financial incentives to smaller hospitals continuing to struggle with the regulatory and compliance requirements associated with Meaningful Use and MACRA. In a MaaS model, a hospital could provide access MEDITECH to users in their organization using a cloud hosted, a shared-instances model with another facility, essentially sharing the same instances of MEDITECH but secured and protected by a facility.
Hoda also reviewed their recent sales successes as well as their many ongoing development initiatives.
- The patient portal is now a real App! Look for it soon in the App Store.
- Hoda discussed the work they are doing with Nuance Dragon speech recognition solutions to allow a cloud and web-based option with tighter integration and a better clinical user experience. Nuance's advanced speech recognition software once powered Apple's iPhone Siri voice recognition platform.
- MEDITECH would start focusing on Nursing using the web in 2018.
- Hoda gave a shout-out to a couple vendors. Acmeware was one of only a few vendors she specifically mentioned, so kudos to Acmeware and all Acmeware employees!
It was great to see all my friends, colleagues and clients at MUSE and looking forward to next year!
For those who want to say hello, I'm speaking at the Becker's Hospital Review Annual IT and Revenue Cycle Conference at the Hyatt Regency, Chicago on Friday, September 22, 2017, from 2:30 pm to 3:10 pm. Jodi and I will be presenting on Revenue Cycle Optimization: Tools and Strategies for Successfully understanding your revenue at risk in your organization. The session will discuss strategies to improve efficiencies in registration, insurance authorization, clinical documentation improvement, supply chain and denials management; tools and resources for reporting and tracking progress from both a clinical and financial perspective; and how to maintain a high-functioning revenue cycle during times of transition.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Saturday, April 8, 2017
Dispatch from the HIMSS Pop Health Forum
This past week I attended the HIMSS Pop Health Forum in Boston MA.
Our OneView Hospital Quality and Physician Quality product was showcased by Northwestern Vermont during the Care Coordination track with a presentation on Wellness, Population Health, and Community-Based Programming.
Northwestern Medical Center in St. Albans, Vermont was one of the first healthcare organizations to upgrade to MEDITECH 6.16. Jodi Frei was the project manager and helped lead the Northwestern Medical team with their transition to 6.16 MEDITECH Web.
Northwestern partnered with Acmeware to helps manage their patient populations inside the organization using our OneView Hospital Quality product.
A few years ago Northwestern Medical Center took the initiative to connect local primary care physicians, skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, their state HIE, and three different ACOs to establish a Regional Clinical Performance Counsel. This group reviews performance indicators and trends (by ACO, payor, clinic, chronic condition, and other measures) and develops targeted treatment strategies for at-risk populations.
The OneView Hospital and Physician Quality software allow them to more precisely target their programming for maximum effectiveness, leveraging the partnerships and programs they’ve developed to better manage their patient populations inside the organization and out in their communities of care.
The forum included great speakers and presentation content. James Bell from the Michigan Public Health Institute gave an incredible presentation on provider engagement with patients and how critical it is to become aware of all the methods for engaging patients. How to effectively use technology for engagement. He referred to this as engaging patients through IT wrap around care, across all care.
If you are attending the Becker's Hospital Review Annual IT and Revenue Cycle Conference in September, Jodi and I will be presenting on Revenue At Risk: Understanding Financial Impacts of Quality Reporting and revenue cycle optimization tools and strategies for success.
Looking forward to seeing you there.
Our OneView Hospital Quality and Physician Quality product was showcased by Northwestern Vermont during the Care Coordination track with a presentation on Wellness, Population Health, and Community-Based Programming.
Northwestern Medical Center in St. Albans, Vermont was one of the first healthcare organizations to upgrade to MEDITECH 6.16. Jodi Frei was the project manager and helped lead the Northwestern Medical team with their transition to 6.16 MEDITECH Web.
Northwestern partnered with Acmeware to helps manage their patient populations inside the organization using our OneView Hospital Quality product.
A few years ago Northwestern Medical Center took the initiative to connect local primary care physicians, skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, their state HIE, and three different ACOs to establish a Regional Clinical Performance Counsel. This group reviews performance indicators and trends (by ACO, payor, clinic, chronic condition, and other measures) and develops targeted treatment strategies for at-risk populations.
The OneView Hospital and Physician Quality software allow them to more precisely target their programming for maximum effectiveness, leveraging the partnerships and programs they’ve developed to better manage their patient populations inside the organization and out in their communities of care.
The forum included great speakers and presentation content. James Bell from the Michigan Public Health Institute gave an incredible presentation on provider engagement with patients and how critical it is to become aware of all the methods for engaging patients. How to effectively use technology for engagement. He referred to this as engaging patients through IT wrap around care, across all care.
If you are attending the Becker's Hospital Review Annual IT and Revenue Cycle Conference in September, Jodi and I will be presenting on Revenue At Risk: Understanding Financial Impacts of Quality Reporting and revenue cycle optimization tools and strategies for success.
Looking forward to seeing you there.
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