Healthmonix Advisor

Lauren Patrick

Lauren is the founder and president of Healthmonix. She brings a vision of assisting organizations and providers in improving the quality of healthcare through innovative approaches. Lauren has a background as a consultant at Ernst and Young and holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Engineering. She loves to bike and kayak!
Find me on:

Recent Posts

Advancing Care Information in the Quality Payment Program Final Rule

Posted by Lauren Patrick on November 17, 2016

The MACRA Quality Payment Program final rule, released Oct. 14, finalizes the payment programs for physicians under MACRA’s Advanced Alternative Payment Models (APMs) and the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), beginning January 1, 2017. 

Read More

Topics: MACRA & MIPS, Policy, ACI Performance Category

Bundled Payments Part II

Posted by Lauren Patrick on November 3, 2016

Recently, we highlighted one of the fastest growing types of initiatives for improving the delivery of value-based care--the bundled payment model--and offered some popular opinions about why it is taking off. This week we’ll dive into some specific bundled payment initiatives past and present.

Read More

Topics: Bundled Payments, Policy

Fundamentals of Bundled Payments

Posted by Lauren Patrick on October 12, 2016

In recent years, the medical industry has seen a host of initiatives for improving the delivery of value-based care, but perhaps the fastest growing of these is the bundled payment model.  CMS has received both praise and criticism for their enthusiastic approach to bundles, but regardless, payment models are clearly changing and providers must stay informed if they want to reap the benefits of these changes.

Read More

Topics: Bundled Payments, MACRA & MIPS

MIPS Performance Category Exemptions

Posted by Lauren Patrick on October 6, 2016

Recently, we discussed how otherwise eligible clinicians could be exempted from the entire MIPS program. However, under the individual performance categories for MIPS (Quality, Advancing Care Information, Resource Use, and Clinical Practice Improvement Activities), there are some special circumstances that will allow for a partial exemption. 

Read More

Topics: MACRA & MIPS, Policy, Eligibility

MIPS Eligibility and Exemptions

Posted by Lauren Patrick on October 4, 2016

After hosting our first ever MIPS webinar, we found that the majority of the questions being asked surrounded MIPS eligibility. In particular, the low-volume threshold was of interest. Since this is a topic we have yet to fully delve into, we decided that we should do so now!

Compared to the current CMS quality initiatives, the pool of eligible clinicians (formerly called eligible providers) will be shrinking significantly for the 2017 performance year. However, any clinician that bills Medicare Part B can practice reporting for MIPS in 2017. Considering that by 2019, when the pool of eligible clinicians will expand, the MIPS payment adjustment will be up to 9%, it is likely wise to report even if you are not an eligible clinician in 2017.

Read More

Topics: MACRA & MIPS, Policy, Eligibility

AMEE 2016 : Do We Want Competent or Excellent Doctors?

Posted by Lauren Patrick on September 27, 2016

Evolving Medical Education is not Without Controversy

Competency Based Medical Education (CBME) Is clearly an area of discussion and controversy worldwide. Medical education is in the middle of a paradigm shift from the old style of medical education, referred to as “Structure/Process” education, initiated in 1910, to CBME. To learn about CBME, a good starting point is AM Rounds. During the AMEE conference, some cynical delegates stated that ‘Competency Based Medical Education’ (CBME) could be misinterpreted as ‘Checklist Based Measurable Education’.

Nevertheless, the paradigm shift is well underway and one aspect of evaluation is the discussion of levels of competency as they align with the physician’s career and practice of medicine.



At AMEE, the question was posed as “do you want to be treated by a competent doctor or an excellent doctor?” Clearly the level of competency needs to be set a particular level and may take some learners longer to achieve than others.

There was a tension across medical educators and at the conference between the idea of "striving for excellence" versus "aiming competence." Pose yourself the following question: Which one of these ‘competent‘ pilots do you want to land the plane?

Read More

Topics: Industry insights

AMEE 2016 : What matters when we teach medicine?

Posted by Lauren Patrick on September 22, 2016

Medical education is not straightforward. At a meeting of over 3,500 healthcare educators from around the world, there were theories and approaches put forward about the best way to education of physicians and there were debates around these. I’ve been attending these meetings for almost ten years, and the conversation is continuing and evolving. It’s never without controversy. Some of the comments I heard this year:

“Embrace complexity but act with simplicity.”

“If you torture data long enough, it will confess to anything.”

“Learning is not knowledge transmission but knowledge reconstruction.”

The opening plenary at AMEE 2016 was delivered by Graham Brown-Martin, an innovator in education. Graham’s talk was focused on education in the school sector, leaving it to us, the audience, to translate into the implications for medical professional education. We also heard that the idea of teaching critical thinking, one of my personal passions, gets lost in teaching facts needed to pass a test or get to the next course. Sound familiar? Graham highlighted how schools need to equip children with the knowledge and skills to reimagine society, to meet the challenges of their generation. Surely this is true for medical education as well.

Read More

Topics: Industry insights

10 PRO Tips for Conquering the Quality Performance Category of MIPS (Part 2)

Posted by Lauren Patrick on September 15, 2016

Last week, we introduced some of the core concepts of the MIPS Quality Performance Category. This week, we are going to elaborate on these premises with Part 2 of our "10 PRO tips for Conquering the Quality Performance Category of MIPS."

Read More

Topics: PRO Tips, PQRS, MACRA & MIPS, Quality Performance Category

10 PRO Tips for Conquering the Quality Performance Category of MIPS (Part 1)

Posted by Lauren Patrick on September 8, 2016

Under the forthcoming Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) is being absorbed into the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). Specifically, PQRS will transition into one of the four Performance Categorys of MIPS, the Quality Performance Category.

Read More

Topics: PRO Tips, MACRA & MIPS, Quality Performance Category

A New (Office) World : Healthmonix Olympics 2016

Posted by Lauren Patrick on September 2, 2016

The 2016 Healthmonix Office Olympics has concluded, and we wanted to share a piece of our culture and give you insight into what we do for fun.  

Over the course of two weeks, Health Monicas (as employees of Healthmonix begrudingly self-refer) competed in the following categories: Nerf Archery, Table Tennis, Rock’em Sock’em (robots), Foosball, Office Chair Rowing, and Trivia.  Teams were built to allow participants to interact cross-departmentally. The developers calculated as the sales people charisma-ed, teams were strong and the competition was feirce. 

Read More

Topics: Healthmonix