For the better part of a decade, the shift toward value-based care in the U.S. has been driven by the establishment of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI). Working to develop, test and evaluate new payment and delivery models in Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, CMMI has taken aim at improving the provider experience, generating better patient outcomes and reducing the overall cost of care.
Recently, CMMI stated that by 2030 every Medicare
Read More
Acute Care | Health IT | News, Analysis, Insights
Leveraging Telemedicine as a Workforce Multiplier for Clinicians
COVID has shown us that telemedicine is effective and easy to use. But why limit the use of virtual care to public health emergencies? With providers and clinicians under increasing strain from staffing gaps and other issues, telemedicine is a valuable solution.
Telemedicine has been a crucial tool in the fight against COVID-19, allowing patients and providers to stay connected even when quarantine rules keep them physically separated.
During the first phase of
Read More
What Hospital Success Looks Like Under Value-Based Care
Hospitals are increasingly turning to value-based care initiatives to transform care delivery, lower the total cost of care, and improve patient outcomes. Unlike traditional fee-for-service (FFS) models that reimburse providers based on volume (i.e., the number of patient visits), providers are reimbursed based on the quality of care delivered in value-based care. Ultimately, success under these reimbursement models hinges upon seamless coordination between all stakeholders across the continuum
Read More
Banner Health Launches Primary Care Health Plan in Northern Colorado
What You Should Know:
- Banner Health is teamed up with the leader in value-based advanced primary care, Hue Health, to launch a new direct primary care health plan called 39North.
- The plan is available to employers and employees based in Northern Colorado, and its name is based on the latitude line of the community it serves. Flume Health, a health-plan-as-a-service platform, handles all of the complex designing and managing of the 39North plan, so Banner and Hue can focus on what they
Read More
New Hospital-At-Home Study Focuses on Rural Health Deserts
What You Should Know:
- Appalachian Regional Healthcare (ARH), based in Lexington, Ky., will use Biofourmis’ virtual care and AI-based predictive analytics technology to support a new Rural Home Hospital program delivering acute hospital-level care inside patients’ homes--including a clinical trial studying this care model in rural areas.
- ARH joins Blessing Health System—which is also using Biofourmis’ solution—as one of only two U.S. participants
Read More
4 Patient Flow Challenges Contributing to Provider Burnout
There has been frequent reporting about the problem of provider workforce shortages within hospitals and health systems and the related burnout experienced when working in high-stress situations during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are pre-existing and contributing patient flow challenges that have been exacerbated by the pandemic, which can lead to burnout, and therefore are worth discussing.
Exposing the Problem
The extent of provider burnout over the course of the pandemic is well
Read More
St. Peter’s Health to Deploy Innovaccer Health Cloud for Optimized Care Management
What You Should Know:
St. Peter’s Health, a regional nonprofit healthcare system in Helena, Montana, is moving to the InnovaccerⓇ Health Cloud's Data Activation Platform to support its mission of providing exceptional and compassionate care that treats the whole person and improves the health, wellness, and quality of life for the communities it serves.
The health system, an integrated network with more than 100 providers, a 99-bed acute care hospital, physician and urgent care
Read More
Is It Finally Time for Hospital-at-Home or is Time Up?
All the signs point to a bright and expansive future for hospital-at-home programs, which have been growing steadily since the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) created the Acute Hospital at Home waiver program in November 2020. As of March, nearly 100 health systems and more than 200 hospitals in 34 states had been approved for the program. Meanwhile, Forrester predicts the number of hospitals delivering acute care at home will triple in 2022. The reasons why are compelling: a study
Read More
Interoperability: A Powerful Solution to Staffing Challenges Continues to be Overlooked
In our ever-changing world, clinicians nowadays must find more efficient ways to operate with fewer resources. Increased patient loads, reimbursement changes, rule and regulation adjustments and thin margins, all while being short-staffed can be compared to a smoldering bonfire that reignites every time the wind blows. As if that weren't enough, post-acute providers will begin to feel even more heat if they don’t embrace interoperability. Our global demographics simply will not be able to
Read More
How Patient Movement Benefits from Standardized Acuity Scoring
Nurses and providers typically assess patient acuity and volume at the beginning of their shift, whether formally or informally. Managers use patient acuity to balance nursing assignments, and nursing staff uses it to determine which patient care action should be prioritized next. Taking a standardized approach to acuity assessments not only provides more objectivity, but also gives hospitals the data they need to make a variety of tactical and strategic decisions, from daily unit staffing to
Read More