Survey: Physicians are not ready for Quality Payment Program

A recent survey of 1,000 physicians discovered that most respondents aren’t ready for the Quality Payment Program (QPP).

The survey, conducted by the American Medical Association and KPMG, indicates that respondents give mixed views on their comfort level with the program, the proposed rules of which were recently issued for review by the industry.

Physicians this year are measuring and reporting certain quality measures while also indicating proficient use of electronic health records (EHRs) in the MIPS program that is part of MACRA. Physicians can acquire extra points and thus receive higher reimbursement rates beginning in the year of 2019.

Instead of entering the MIPS program, physicians can be part of an Advanced Alternative Payment Model, which will need them to take on risk and receive a 5 percent bonus for meeting certain thresholds that reward doctors for delivering high-quality and cost-efficient care.

In the AMA survey, 70% of respondents report they have started preparations to meet QPP requirements, and about 90% of those believe they will meet the 2017 reporting requirements.

Although, the survey discovered that just 51% were somewhat knowledgeable about MACRA and the Quality Payment Program, and only 8 percent reported that they were very knowledgeable about QPP.

Prior reporting experience through the PQRS and EHR meaningful use programs appears to have contributed to readiness for QPP, survey results demonstrated. However, only one in four physicians say they are well-prepared for QPP.

“Although, even those who feel prepared do not completely understand the financial ramifications of the program,” in accordance with the AMA and KPMG, which conducted the study for the AMA. “In short, they may be prepared to ‘check the box’ of reporting requirements but they lack the long-term strategic financial vision to succeed in 2018 and beyond.” Survey findings are available here.

 

Chief Information Officers (CIOs) look to optimize EHRs, but confront budget realities

Several chief information officers at healthcare agencies plan to heavily invest in optimizing their electronic health record (EHR) systems during the next 3 years, but most will be attempting to do that within the constraints of their existing budgets.

That is because these executives say they won’t see expansion of current IT budgets, in accordance to research and consulting firm KPMG.

KPMG in the month of January surveyed 112 CIO members of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, finding that the IT experts are searching for solutions to physician dissatisfaction with the EHRs they have in place, claims Ralph Fargnoli, managing director at KPMG.

With the Trump Administration in place, it still is not clear what will happen with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). That makes it even more imperative for Chief Information Officers “to continue down the path to get the best efficiencies in IT spend and utilize data to support accountable care and payment changes,” in accordance to Fargnoli.

Survey respondents demonstrated technology investments would target EHR optimization (38%), cloud computing (25%), accountable care/population health (21%), and consumer/clinical/operational analytics (16%), virtual/telehealth enhancements (13%), revenue cycle optimization/replacement (7%) and enterprise resource planning system optimization/replacement (6%).

Some 36% of responding CIOs expect an increase in operating budgets during the next 2 years.

In general, Chief Information Officers are expecting to achieve savings from optimization efforts and then reinvest those funds, specifically in telehealth and analytics, because executive leadership is telling them, “We cannot give you any more money,” Fargnoli claims.

Areas being considered to control or decrease IT operating expense involve centralization and standardization of IT services and systems, eradicating redundant apps and their infrastructures, terminating or turning around underperforming IT projects, adopting cloud services, lowering labor spend or eliminating contractors, outsourcing low value services, and renegotiating outsourcing contracts or insourcing.

The requirement for greater interoperability, although, could take a bite out of few of the savings, Fargnoli adds. “Interoperability has an effect on costs; if you require more integration steps and are building code that impacts the budget. Interoperability plays immensely on IT budgets if you need analytics but do not have free flow access to data.”

In the end, Fargnoli states, optimization should concentrate not just on technology but on change management, with one key query to consider: “How does an information system impact sufferers and clinicians and support quality outcomes and patient care?”

 

CIOs hope healthcare IT spending to increase in 2017 year

Healthcare CIOs are more likely to grow healthcare IT spending over the next twelve months in contrast to top IT executives in other industries, as providers seek to make better the efficiency and business procedures. That’s why CIOs expect healthcare IT spending to increase in the year of 2017.

Healthcare IT executives also claim that they hope to sustain to struggle with important shortages in staff with required technology skills, in accordance to outcomes of a new survey from Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO Survey.

The survey of 190 healthcare CIOs indicates that 52% expect increases in Healthcare IT spending budgets over the next year, while 35% assume unchanged budgets. By contrast, 45% of CIOs from entire industries say they hope budgets to increase, while 33% of them anticipate budgets to remain unchanged.

 “The Healthcare industry IT spend has been significantly low, but latest high profile security breaches, uncertainties over regulatory compliance, growing complexity of health IT systems and the deployment of digital and mobild healTh services to make better the patient access, satisfaction and brand loyalty have elevated the priority and spend in the board room for longer term investments,” summarizes a report on the survey’s findings.

Nevertheless, however 80% of CIOs show that there is an increasing strategic role for IT in their agencies, in contrast with 67% from all industries, only half of those surveyed claimed that they have a clear digital business vision and strategy, while the survey discovered that 39% of respondents were presently working on a digital business strategy.

In fact, healthcare agencies are less likely to have a digital business strategy, within business units or enterprise wide, than the all-industries average.

“Despite important increases in Healthcare IT spending in recent years, the maturity of IT contribution or investment in healthcare is yet lagging in comparison with other industries, and healthcare companies know they require catching up,” analyzed Vince Vickers, an advisory principal for healthcare and life sciences at KPMG.

“Healthcare agencies have primary operational cost pressures now more than ever, and there is a chance to close that gap rapidly with disruptive technologies and analytic devices that open the door to the notion of the ‘creative CIO,” he states.

Although, as Vickers points out, the survey discloses that healthcare lags other industries in vital technology skills. When inquired in what areas their agencies are suffering from skills shortages, 45% of healthcare CIOs said big data/analytics, 36% reacted to project management, 30% indicated change management, and 29% said security/resilience.

One sector that is gaining interest from healthcare agencies as a “means to leapfrog to more contemporary technology” is cloud computing, in accordance to Vickers. “No industry has a greater chance than healthcare to leverage the cloud to change its operations, decrease cost and make better its customer satisfaction (patient care) than healthcare,” he stated.

The top 3 reasons CIOs provided for utilizing the cloud were to make better the availability and resiliency (45%), to use the best solution available (35%) and to make better the agility and responsiveness (34%).

Still, at the similar time, those surveyed showed that the top 3 issues to adopting cloud computing were data loss and privacy risks (55%), integration with existing architecture (46%), and legal and regulatory compliance problems (42%). In specific, Vickers pointed out that one of the issues facing healthcare agencies is that few clinical software and electronic health record (EHR) systems are yet not available or optimized for the cloud.

 

CMS discloses interactive tool to map disparities in care

CMS issued an interactive tool for mapping geographic disparities in chronic diseases among Medicare beneficiaries.

Present online, the tool can be utilized to pinpoint disparities in health results, medical utilization and spending by race, ethnicity, and geographic location.

The Mapping Medicare Disparities tool’s main features involve a dynamic interface, the capability to sort by various population subsets and built-in benchmarking

With the interface, consumers can see information on the prevalence of 18 chronic conditions, end-stage renal disease, and disability. It also has data on Medicare spending, hospital. and emergency department utilization, preventable hospitalizations, readmissions, and death rates.

Consumers can sort by residence, sex, age, dual Medicare/Medicaid eligibility, race and ethnicity using either by aggregate state or county-specific data. The benchmarking feature permits uses to investigate disparities within and across racial and ethnic groups.

The agency established the tool — part of the CMS Equity Plan for Improving Quality in Medicare — in collaboration with KPMG and NORC at the University of Chicago.