eHealth Initiative (eHI) is pleased to submit this proposal for services to support you in achieving your goals for marketing, brand awareness, business development, thought leadership, and research. Over the last 17 years, eHI has partnered with hundreds of organizations working in healthcare whose ultimate business goal is to improve the quality of patient care and transform the healthcare delivery system. This proposal lists the most popular services contracted through the Foundation for eHealth Initiative. These can be customized, specifically around topic areas and target audiences. Our main goal is to ensure that you find value from your work with us. We welcome your feedback on other services that might better support and fit your needs.

U.S. National Health IT Week (NHIT Week) is a nationwide awareness week focused on catalyzing actionable change within the U.S. health system through the application of information and technology. Founded by HIMSS and the Institute for e-Policy in 2006, the week-long celebration is comprised of partner-driven activities and events led by the efforts of national health stakeholders. Participants range from the Administration, congressional, federal and state agencies, providers, non-profit organizations and more. Virtually, in Washington DC and beyond, National Health IT Week stakeholders collaborate towards actionable outcomes which demonstrate the power information and technology has to transform health in the U.S., and its wide-reaching global impact.

As healthcare costs in the U.S. continue to inch towards 20% of gross domestic product, unique and inventive ways of bending the cost curve have begun to take shape.  The financial implications of value-based care delivery have increased, while fee-for-service models continue to face consumer and regulatory scrutiny. Measures of quality – such as readmission rates, patient-reported experiences of care (CAHPS), and spend-per-beneficiary – are now inseparable from reimbursement, workflow, and organizational viability.  Risks are now incurred inside the acute care environment, as well as before and after care is received.  Increasingly, a patient and caregiver’s knowledge of preventative activities, current condition(s), treatment plans, and self-care becomes paramount to achieving ideal outcomes outside the clinical environment.  Consequently, improving health literacy is increasingly recognized as a key cost and efficiency driver ripe with technologic and workflow advancement opportunities.

How big is the effect of health literacy on growing costs?  A recent study conducted by Accenture stated that amongst health plans, low health literacy incurred an estimated $4.8 billion annually in administrative costs.   Another study hosted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) estimated that the total cost of low health literacy in the U.S. healthcare system for both providers and health plans totals more than 200 billion dollars per year.  Although population health efforts have provided a path for beginning to address the health literacy gaps, recognition of the scope of the health literacy problem is not readily understood by most provider and health plan organizations.  Increased focus surrounding how patients and caregivers interact and communicate with clinicians is vital to tackling the health literacy problem.

One way that many large health systems, integrated delivery networks, and care management organizations are improving patient health literacy is through more robust patient and caregiver education efforts.  Patient and caregiver education improves understanding around the importance of adherence to treatment plans and the appropriate utilization of care.  Through more formalized approaches to education and collaboration amongst patients, caregivers, and care teams, new benchmarks and standards are established and scaled across organizations.  From these efforts, patient outcomes improve, unnecessary costs can be decreased, and clinical quality heightened.  Fortunately, a formalized approach to tackling health literacy through education is becoming easier with the progression of technology that can deliver education to varying channels, care settings, and workflows.

Providers and health plans are encouraged to think about the following in addressing gaps in health literacy:

Care Team Considerations

• Assign care management resources to each patient
• Engage in motivational interviewing at the point of care and through care coordination efforts
• Provide patient and caregiver with appropriate education consistently and frequently to reinforce key concepts and behaviors
• Ensure that patients and caregivers fully understand the treatment plan so that they are engaged and invested in the course of action
• Involve the patient’s family to understand the patient’s information needs

Technology Considerations

• Consistently track goals & biological data
• Enroll patients into personalized longitudinal care plans with frequent education touchpoints
• Automate content during the visit, after the visit, or during follow-ups
• Track engagement metrics and patient’s response to information
• Provide different types of content for the patients, leveraging devices they use
• Deliver social media pushes, campaigns, and targeted materials to patients and their families

At-Home Considerations

• Send communications and education on a regular basis to patients from their healthcare organization and associated value-based program
• Use at-home devices such as blood glucose meters, pedometers, or other technology that can be integrated into the EMR
• Perform follow-up with a care manager diligently alongside treatment plan

These considerations for success were discussed as part of a presentation by eHI members Jake Blanchard and Josh Schlaich of Healthwise during eHealth Initiative’s September 2018 Workflow for Provider and Patient Engagement Workgroup meeting.

Clinic to in-home telemedicine reduces barriers to care for patients with MS or other neuroimmunologic conditions

In this survey study, analyzing experience with clinic to in-home telemedicine in our academic MS and neuroimmunology clinic, travel and caregiver burden were reduced with the convenience of televideo-enabled visits while preserving efficient and effective care in the opinion of both patients and clinicians. These results support the integration of clinic to in-home telemedicine within the continuum of MS/neuroimmunology specialty care.

The full article can be downloaded below.  

A quick look at the UK's new National Health Service app

The National Health Service (NHS) in England is introducing a new app that will allow patients to access NHS services on their smartphones and tablets, to be gradually rolled out across the country starting from December this year.

Developed by NHS Digital and NHS England, it will be available through the App Store and Google Play for patients aged 16 and over, who will be able to use the app to access their GP records and the NHS 111 symptom checker, book appointments, order repeat prescriptions, register as organ donors and set data sharing preferences, using a single identity verification system.

The full article can be viewed at this link.  

October 2018 report from the PEW Charitable Trusts.

This report lays out Pew’s research findings and recommendations, including steps that can be taken in the near term to improve patient matching and the infrastructure needed for more robust progress in the medium term and long term.

The Role of Consumer Consent in Health Information Exchange (HIE) 

The traditional one-way information transfer considered the healthcare provider as the expert communicator and the patient as passive receiver of information. Patient-centered care operates based on patients’ preferences to improve patient safety and increase patient satisfaction and participation. A mutual exchange of information ensures that both patients and healthcare professionals form a partnership. Greater patients’ participation in Health Information Exchange can lead to higher degree of trust among all types of demographic groups. Patients need to be more engaged in decisions about data exchange through HIE in order to trust the technology and the healthcare system. The right of informed choice and consent is a meaningful means to achieve the support of consumers regarding HIE. However, the process of handling informed consent has caused variety of concerns such as security and privacy risks for patients. In this study, the role of consumer consent is discussed using the literature review method.

The full paper can be downloaded below.  

Navigating Your Path to Consumer-Driven Health Plans

As employers move toward offering a consumer-driven health plan (CDHP) as part of their employee benefits, many have questions such as:

• How do employees respond to consumerism?
• Are my employees ready to assume greater control and responsibility?
• What can my company do to make the transition easier?
• Will the benefits of making the transition be worth the expense and the upheaval?

This research from Humana answers those questions and more. Over a 15-month period, researchers studied individuals representing different age groups, family structures, employment positions, and income levels. Participants remained anonymous. The findings are reliable, but due to the nature of qualitative research, they cannot be considered representative of the general population. By studying the same people over time, an evolution can be seen in employees’ attitudes, beliefs, and behavior, and employers can make note of potential obstacles to avoid.

The study findings are summarized below.

Best Practices

• Employees appreciate choice - Your company’s implementation of a consumer-driven health plan can be smoother by designing offerings with choice in mind—and by making sure each offering is distinct. You can further build employees’ confidence in their enrollment choices by helping them predict potential costs and by providing tools that can help them forecast future healthcare needs.
• Employees want to “try it on” - The ability to predict healthcare needs and costs leads to confident decision-making in choosing a plan.  Permitting employees to make use of company computers, hosting training classes, or setting up kiosks can help overcome lack of computer familiarity. Likewise, employee expectations can be made more manageable by facilitating ongoing communication or by providing employees with a “coach” that can guide them in predicting healthcare needs and selecting an appropriate plan.
• Getting results - Changes in attitude and behavior are driven by experience and the desire to contain out-of-pocket costs.  One way to enhance an employee’s sense of control over their own healthcare is to communicate year-round about the benefits that the employee has selected and how he or she has used the plan. Such communications could include an individualized statement of benefits used or year-to-date cost savings
• The need for ongoing support - A system of supportive communication can help build familiarity and boost employee confidence.
• Money matters - Consider exploring special incentives that encourage employees in the responsible use of their plan benefits.
• Planning pays off - Encourage your employees to plan ahead for emergencies and provide the tools to make planning easy.
• Transparency is necessary - When your employees understand the value of transparency in healthcare, they are likely to have much greater confidence in their ability to be smart consumers. You help facilitate this understanding by making sure employees are aware of the tools available to them and by providing training to ensure that they are able to use these tools easily and effectively.
• Keep it simple - Employees’ top priorities are ease of use and claims follow-up.  There is a desire to see their spending information presented in a familiar, user-friendly frame of reference, such as a credit card statement.  You may also wish to explore options that can help simplify claims and reimbursement.
• Consumerism meets individual needs - There may be a need to acknowledge the various temperaments and styles in which people organize information. You may need to deliver information in a variety of ways. Consider surveying your employees about their preferred methods of receiving information.

The full Humana Research Summary can be downloaded below.  

Connecting your medical data could be the next big payoff

An article focused on creating accessible and integrated patient data.  This holistic approach fulfills value-based care goals and helps promote overall patient health and wellness.  

The full article can be viewed at this link.