In an environment of ever-increasing demands for information, healthcare providers must ask more, document more and learn more about their patients. With more information comes more insight; this is evident as some of the hottest topics for healthcare IT include Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and patient data analytics. But to get to the point where patient data can successfully be used to identify care gaps and provide predictive insights, the information must be documented correctly.
At Healthmonix, we are often asked the question, from solo practitioners and health IT vendors alike: “what information do I need to capture to report on MIPS Quality measures?” The answer is, it depends. Some Quality measures are measuring specific outcomes that can be documented in a qualitative way, such as a patient’s A1c level, while other measures are measuring whether a certain action was performed, such as a clinician documenting a patient’s current medications. While the way this information is documented may sound inconsequential compared to whether the quality action is performed, the format of information within the medical record can have a significant impact on your EHR’s ability to analyze information and share it effectively with other systems.
Having the proper diagnosis, encounter and performance outcomes coded and documented in a structured format within your EHR allows for real insight to occur. Structured data can be easily searched and used to identify trends, and it makes the sharing of health information across different doctors, care groups and health systems more effective. And when it comes to MIPS reporting, it makes calculating Quality performance a whole lot easier.
So what does this mean for you? Well, really two things:
To ensure that you are preparing for MIPS success, make sure that your care team is taking full advantage of the tools within your EHR and capturing information in a structured way for easier analysis and sharing. If your EHR does not provide you with the option to capture structured data, it may be worth assessing whether it is time for an upgrade.
By capturing information in a way that can be easily analyzed and shared, you will be better prepared to take advantage of the data analysis tools to come and able to utilize those tools to create better outcomes for your patients.
if you have questions about anything in the world of MACRA and MIPS, check out our MIPS Resource Library or talk to a member of our quality reporting team today.
