New Delivery Models Call For Next-Generation Analytics Reports

By Julie Ritzer Ross

A desire among practitioners to weather the storm of health care reform (continuing to grow) has recently created a wide berth for alternative health care delivery models and alternate payment mechanisms and models. These include accountable care organizations (ACOs) alternative hospital-centric, integrated delivery models, integrated physician groups, and others.) While such models are still evolving, one thing is for certain: Executing them will necessitate the development of practice reporting processes that contain a deeper, more comprehensive analytics component than those currently in use, according to William G. Pickart, CEO of Integrated Medical Partners (IMP; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; www.integratedmp.com).

He says, "Many reports and systems, as they stand, do not offer access to the meaningful and actionable data and detail needed to provide potential participants in an integrated delivery model with an understanding of the implications of various alternative payment mechanisms in play today.  Nor do they offer access to or analytics required to enable the practice to demonstrate their ability to achieve the objectives of ACOs and similar delivery models' better patient care, at a lower cost.

"We are moving from a fee-for-service payment model to an episode of care payment model with an overlay of demonstrative evidence of quality outcomes and efficient use of resources (utilization of services) necessary in the emerging healthcare delivery model."

Pickart offers the example of a report that currently contains data, collected via the revenue cycle management (RCM) process, radiology information system (RIS), hospital information system (HIS), financial reporting systems, and other key data sets, throughout the continuum of care pertaining to services required for an episode of care.

Click here for more

Grabbing a Seat at the Alternative Delivery Table

By Julie Ritzer Ross

Savvy imaging providers across the spectrum of care have begun to formulate strategies for attracting potential partners with which to ally in alternative care-delivery models. While using analytics to demonstrate the value that one’s organization can bring to the table is key, promoting the interoperability of the systems used to generate and store raw data (and, more important, analytics) is equally vital.

Gregory M. Kusiak, MBA, says, "Without the interoperability card, radiology practices—and all other providers, for that matter—may as well just dab at their eyes with a handkerchief while at the negotiating table."€ Kusiak is president of CMBS (Arcadia, California; www.cmbsi.com), a full-service practice-management company. CMBS is a subsidiary of the Hill Medical Corp, which provides radiology services at three California imaging centers (two in Pasadena and one in Glendora). The Hill Medical Corp. also serves one hospital and the breast centers of three additional hospitals.

RadAnalytics recently sat down with Kusiak (who also serves as practice manager of the Hill Medical Corp) to discuss interoperability and its implications for alternative health-care delivery.

Click here for more

The Road to Interoperability Is Paved With Benefits and Challenges

By Matt Skoufalos

No matter which alternative imaging-delivery model they opt to follow, radiology practices and hospitals must ensure the interoperability of the systems used to share data internally, as well as with provider partners and payors. The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in Charleston, a high-volume teaching hospital, has progressed quite far along this continuum.

The facility, which saw 40,000 inpatients and 1.1 million outpatients and generated $1.3 billion in patient revenue in 2010, describes itself as the largest nonfederal employer in the city. In terms of connectivity, its electronic medical record (EMR) rated a stage 6 designation on the HIMSS Analytics™ seven-stage EMR Adoption Modelsm scale, according to a July 2011 U.S. News & World Report ranking of the top 118 most connected hospitals in the country.

Frank Clark serves as MUSC's CIO. He states that the hospital has had a fully digital EMR system for about four or five years, although, as he says, "it will always be a refining and evolving initiative"" as additions and upgrades to it continue.

Click here for more