The Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative (TCPI) grant awards, announced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last month, aims to equip more than 140,000 clinicians with the tools and support needed to improve quality of care, increase patients’ access to information, and reduce costs.
Primary care teams, providing comprehensive care within a patient-centered medical home, have the clinical competencies, infrastructure, and relationships necessary to improve oral health and reduce oral health disparities. Yet few primary care practices include oral health as a component of routine medical care. The new Oral Health Delivery Framework delineates the oral health activities for which a primary care team could take accountability.
As patients increasingly encounter rising costs for health care services, there are new opportunities for clinicians to work with patients to understand how informed referrals and shared decision making can improve the patient experience. Too often clinicians don't have information on the relative cost of health care services or facilities. In an effort to work toward standardization and to enable comparisons,the Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement (NRHI) recently completed an 18 month pilot to produce total cost of care and resource use data in 5 regions.
The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) has focused their 2015 advocacy efforts on a bill called the Caregiver Advise, Record and Enable (CARE) Act in efforts to improve patient care at home. The CARE Act outlines a process by which a family can choose a designated caregiver for a loved one, where a Hospital then has the responsibility to instruct and demonstrate how to perform different medical tasks and give proper care.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has developed an extensive collection of resources for the primary care community to use in research and evaluation, quality improvement, and the delivery of improved primary care services. On May 21 at 1 p.m. EST, Janice Genevro, PhD, a health scientist at AHRQ, will join the PCPCC's National Briefing to provide an exploration of the PCMH Resource Center web site and other AHRQ resources designed to support the delivery of evidence-based, patient-centered primary care.
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) is focused on ensuring that health IT is helping to support healthcare transformation and the move toward value-based care delivery.
We are learning two things about restructuring health care in the United States in the post-Affordable Care Act (ACA) environment: Primary care transformation is essential to a well-performing health care delivery system and payment reform works best when it is consistent across payers.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s (HIPAA) Privacy Rule can present barriers to collaboration between behavioral health and primary care providers. However, many of those barriers are more perceived than real. This month’s National Briefing will provide an in-depth look at the obstacles to sharing data between behavioral health and primary care providers. Dayna Matthew, JD, joins us to present an overview of HIPAA barriers and to debunk common misunderstandings about data-sharing under HIPAA. Ms.
Patients, families and consumer advocates are the great untapped resource in our quest to achieve the Triple Aim of better health, better care and lower costs. Only patients and their families/caregivers live at the intersection of all aspects of the health care system, giving them unique experiences and insights to help improve care quality and outcomes while reducing health care costs.
WellSpan Health, a community-owned not-for-profit health system and a leader in population health management, knows what it takes to align health care services with the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH). WellSpan's leadership has committed to a complete re-design of care team roles, not just in primary care, but throughout the hospital, specialty practices and community-based services. Their innovative model builds on the trusted relationship between patients and their primary care team to ensure high-quality, coordinated care, based on the needs of the patient and family.
