Healthmonix Advisor

This past Sunday, I was fortunate enough to attend the Philadelphia Take Steps Walk. Sponsored by the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation and organized by members of the local community, this event raised $388,000 to fight inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Hundred of patients, providers, and organizations met at Citizen’s Bank Park here in Philadelphia to enjoy an educational festival, celebrate loved ones fighting IBD, and walk through the stadium and field as a show of solidarity to anyone suffering from these diseases.

We get a lot of questions from multi-specialty practices about how to get started with MIPS reporting. Measure selection can be confusing, and there are many common misconceptions, such as the assumption that different specialties cannot report together. Reporting MIPS can even seem entirely hopeless, due to the size, services, and systems used by your practice. That’s why this week we’re sharing our advice about the most significant steps your multi-specialty practice can take to set itself up for MIPS success!

Over the past year, we tracked over 11 million patients with over 2 BILLION quality actions in MIPS reporting alone! We are already back to work and developing some really cool new analytic solutions to help our clients optimize their Quality outcomes.

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.

On Tuesday April 24th, CMS released a proposed rule which essentially overhauls the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentive Programs (also known as the “Meaningful Use” program). The proposed rule includes updates to Medicare payment policies and rates under the Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and the Long-Term Care Hospital (LTCH) Prospective Payment System (PPS). Here are five things you should know about the proposed changes:

Hospital executives have to make tough decisions during the shift to value based care, especially when it comes to software. What systems are worth investing in, and how can you ensure your hospital is getting the most out of its money? In MIPS reporting, for example, it can feel like an impossible task to weigh the pros and cons of reporting via EHR or working with a registry.

As the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) become more complex, clinicians will be looking for answers to their reporting questions. Consultants, billers, and technology vendors often face the brunt of those questions, but don’t feel best-suited to answer them. After spending most waking hours assisting with last-minute MIPS submissions last month, I wanted to disclose a few quick tips for you to share with anyone looking to report.

As a mental and behavioral health clinician, you might be immediately skeptical about the title of this blog. CMS has, after all, given you a free pass for two consecutive reporting years. That’s right, the government is actually giving you a break! So why should mental and behavioral health clinicians still report?

Congrats everyone, we survived the first year of MIPS! Whether 2017 represented the first time your practice participated in value-based care initiatives—or an opportunity for your organization to continue performing at a high level in CMS programs—the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System was new for everyone. As we transition to the second year of MIPS, one of the key changes your practice will need to address is the amount of information necessary to achieve reporting success.

My parents love to reminisce about the good old days. They paint a picture of a “simpler” world where milk, ice, and the occasional Schwan’s were delivered right to your doorstep, and where doctors still made house calls. They were direct beneficiaries of the technological advancements that came about after the second industrial revolution and were part of one of the greatest economic expansions in history following WWII. They experienced the evolution of cars, colored television, mass production of penicillin, and automation.