HHS Announces $685M Awards in Patient-Centered Clinician Aid
By - The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is on a mission to improve the quality of healthcare, advance patients’ information accessibility, and decrease expenses across the industry.
According to today’s announcement from HHS Secretary, Sylvia M. Burwell, $685 million will be awarded to 39 national and regional healthcare networks and accompanying healthcare organizations. Secretary Burwell released the awards in association with today’s roundtable discussion with Congress members and healthcare leaders about healthcare’s transformational shift from volume to value. As RevCycleIntelligence.com reported, as the shift from physician reimbursement from volume to value continues, healthcare providers and healthcare professionals are perhaps much more focused on how to provide top-notch, high quality value-based care for their patients.
With a focus on strengthening efforts associated with this transitional shift, The Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative from HHS is intended to utilize both mutual and peer-to-peer educational support networks to advocate for physicians and clinicians nationwide – including 29 medical group practices, regional healthcare systems, and regional extension centers – as HHS confirms today in a press release.
“Supporting doctors and other health care professionals change the way they work is critical to improving quality and spending our health care dollars more wisely,” says Secretary Burwell within the press release. “These awards will give patients more of the information they need to make informed decisions about their care and give clinicians access to information and support to improve care coordination and quality outcomes,” she adds.
Adds Patrick Conway, MD, Acting Principal Deputy Administrator and Chief Medical Officer at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), support for HHS's awards is essential to achieve improved healthcare, more intelligent spending, and an overall healthier population. “As a practicing physician, I know the importance of quality improvement support and sharing of best practices to help clinicians transform their practice and deliver outstanding care to every person," Conway says.
HHS outlines efforts to strengthen the healthcare industry
Today’s press release from HHS explains the following list of detailed efforts tied to the aforementioned $685 million awards:
- Helping providers give patients better tools for communication through e-mails and other information technology applications;
- Providing dedicated coaches to help practices better manage chronic disease and offer preventive care;
- Offering real-time notification alerts for clinicians caring for high-risk patients;
- Improving screening and treatment of mental health and substance abuse across multiple care settings and increasing patient medication management education;
- Centralizing data reporting and providing technical assistance with quality improvement targets and mid-course corrections; and
- Promoting patient, provider and community engagement through advisory boards and community engagement in learning collaboratives.
HHS additionally explains that up to $27 million will be granted to 10 of the total 39 national organizations and healthcare professional associations in order to execute the following objectives:
- Align clinical practice guidelines across multiple medical specialties and disseminate those findings through well-established communications channels;
- Offer Continuing Medical Education credit to clinicians to support transformation efforts and ensure that coordinated education programs are offered to participating clinicians;
- Share best practices and provide technical assistance and coaching to their members that may be struggling with how to participate in emerging alternative payment models; and
- Provide educational materials and access to registry data information, including training on how to use the data to improve care.
The concept of spending healthcare dollars more wisely is certainly a simple yet perhaps lofty goal. The awards, says HHS, are part of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) overarching strategy to promote innovative stages of “coordination, continuity, and integration of care, while transitioning volume-driven systems to value-based, patient-centered, health care services” among groups of healthcare professionals, including primary physicians, specialty physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and clinical pharmacists.
