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Week in Review: The Power of Patient Engagement

The Power of Patient Engagement:
A Conversation with the Experts

Thursday, February 28th

Dear Members and Friends:

With the Medicare program getting a lot of attention this week, I was inspired by some words from David Blumenthal, CEO of The Commonwealth Fund during his testimony to the Senate Special Committee on Aging. He said: "An alternative—and far preferable—strategy would support comprehensive payment and delivery system changes that produce lower costs and better value not just in Medicare, but across the entire U.S. health system."

We couldn't agree more. His examples of delivery system change include medical home and care coordination programs that are improving quality and reducing costs by rewarding providers, payers, and patients for achieving improvements in outcomes and system inefficiencies-- and we must all remember that patients are a crucial element in helping us all achieve true health system transformation. That's why we are excited to welcome two patient engagement experts to our Monthly National Briefing this morning at 11 AM ET:

Christine Bechtel, Vice President of the National Partnership for Women & Families will discuss A Framework for Patient And Family Engagement (click here for slides)
Judith Hibbard, DrPH, Senior Researcher at the University of Oregon will discuss What the Evidence Shows About Patient Activation (click here for slides)

National Monthly Briefing
Date: Thursday, 2/28, 11AM ET
Dial in: (712) 432-0900
Access Code: 868853#

We look forward to catching up at 11am!

Sincerely,

Marci Nielsen, PhD, MPH
Chief Executive Officer

Featured Resources

Patient Engagement Policy Brief: A new brief from Health Affairs includes key findings on patient engagement published in their February issue. The findings demonstrate that more engaged patients tend to experience better health outcomes and incur lower costs.

Study: Seven Million Americans Live in Areas Where Demand for Primary Care May Exceed Supply by More Than 10 Percent: Authors estimate that national demand for primary care services will call for 7,200 additional primary care providers, or 2.5% of current supply. They conclude that seven million people live in areas where the expected increase is greater than 10% of supply, and 44 million live in areas above 5%.

Webinar Today @ Noon

Thurs, Feb. 28th Noon ET: Easing the Transition: Core Principles and Values for Building Effective Care Teams

In this webinar, the authors of an Institute of Medicine (IOM) paper "Core Principles & Values of Effective Team-Based Health Care," will present basic principles and personal values that characterize interprofessional team-based care. These basic principles will provide a framework and guiding principles to help clinicians, patients, administrators, and other stakeholders achieve the Triple Aim goals of better care, better health, and lower costs.

2013 Annual Fall Meeting

October 13-15, 2013 - Washington, DC
Registration Opens March 15th

Sponsorship Opportunities Available Now!

CMS Awards $300M for
State Innovation Models

CMS announced over $300 million in State Innovation Model awards to six states: Arkansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, and Vermont. The awards will support strategies to transform state health care delivery systems through payment and care delivery reforms. The awards are included in Section 3021 of the Affordable Care Act.

Medical Home Happenings
News from Around the Country

Coordinated healthcare could save California $110B, group says Los Angeles Times, 2/26. A new report from Berkeley Forum says California could save $110 billion over a decade if the state moved from fee-for-service to coordinated care.

Changing the way Medicare pays physicians The Commonwealth Fund, 2/25. Includes Commonwealth's proposal to replace the SGR formula with a broad-based policy that would promote high quality and efficient health care.

Johns Hopkins wants to strengthen primary care focus Baltimore Business Journal, 2/22. Johns Hopkins University CEO Paul Rothman says he wants the hospital and medical school to increase its focus on primary care.

Medicare's Transitional Care Payment - A Step Toward the Medical Home New England Journal of Medicine, 2/21. CMS will provide $600M to enhance payments for primary care services that encourage changes in delivery, including non-face-to-face visits and coordination services.