Consensus: Ability to Capture, Analyze and Use Data is Critical to Meet Government and Marketplace Quality, Cost Pressures
MONTEREY, Calif., Nov. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- With implementation of the Affordable Care Act in process, senior executives from payer and provider organizations around the country agreed today that less-fragmented, more-usable financial and clinical data will be critical to meet government regulation and marketplace challenges for improved care at lower cost. The discussion took place on the first day of a two-day conference in Monterey sponsored by MedeAnalytics, a leading provider of healthcare performance management solutions.
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In the morning panel discussion, Patricia Dykes, senior nurse scientist in the Center for Nursing Excellence at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Mass., emphasized the need to make the cost of healthcare more transparent to patients so they can make better, more-informed decisions.
Coping with Fewer Reimbursement Dollars
Looking at dwindling government and private revenue sources for delivering healthcare to all Americans, Juan Davila, Blue Shield of California's senior vice president of Network Management, warned that if our industry doesn't align incentives to better manage costs and quality, the government will do it for us.
Davila cited 20 ACO pilot projects underway at Blue Shield of California with the goal of achieving a zero annual increase in healthcare cost. He noted that in one project, 5,000 of the 42,000 patients account for 70 percent of all healthcare costs (most of them with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes and other chronic conditions). To help control those costs, the strategy is to give this group of heavy consumers of healthcare more attention and better service.
In the final presentation of the day, David Roberts, vice president of Government Relations for HIMSS, provided an inside-the-Beltway perspective on the economic stimulus law, health reform, and possible impacts on healthcare of the deficit reduction deliberations.
Keynote Speakers on Nov. 11:
David W. Bates, MD, chief quality officer, Brigham and Women's Hospital; medical director of Clinical and Quality Analysis, Partners HealthCare
Sachin H. Jain, MD, physician, Brigham and Women's Hospital and former senior advisor to Donald M. Berwick, CMS administrator
Ian Morrison, author, consultant, futurist
Daily summit highlights
Conference highlights and key findings will be distributed daily via press release, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
About MedeAnalytics
Founded in 1994, MedeAnalytics delivers performance management solutions across the healthcare system—including hospitals, physician practices and payers—to ensure accountability and improve financial, operational and clinical outcomes. For more information, visit www.medeanalytics.com.
For more information:
Bruce Lewis
Lewis & Summers Public Relations
(707) 813-1197
[email protected]
SOURCE MedeAnalytics