eHI Comment letter to CMS on MACRA

This week, IMS Health’s Institute for Healthcare Informatics addressed eHI’s Advisory Board on Business and Clinical Motivators. They brought their unique perspective on the challenges and promise of mHealth in the future of healthcare. Presenters James Tong, Michael Krupnick, and Brian Clancy spoke briefly on their work with AppScript and AppNucleus, their proprietary software. Of particular note was their emphasis that there are over 165,000 application out in the marketplace currently and how it is their goal to provide accurate information on the best apps for users.

What are the regulatory drivers of health information technology and consumers that impacts clinical and business changes in your organization? Join the next Business and Clinical Motivators meeting to hear Mark Savage, Director of Health Information Technology Policy and Programs from the National Partnership for Women and Families. Mark will present the findings from the Partnership’s survey – Engaging Patients and Families: How Consumers Value and Use Health IT. This work helps to highlight what patients want from providers and the vendors that serve them. Regulations promoting Patient Engagement has been very successful, what's next? Mark provides insight into what the national partnership for patient and families, and the consumer partnership for eHealth hope to see in future regulatory efforts.

Great Lakes Health Connect Executive Director Doug Dietzman addressed eHI’s Council of Data Analytics on the potential of data to meet specific needs across the healthcare spectrum. He spoke on the importance of integrating behavioral health and physical health into a single data stream, granting the provider a picture of the whole person. During the discussion Doug spoke to the work that GLHC is doing to help the citizens of Flint by leveraging their ability to analyze massive quantities of data to assist in relief efforts.

October 31st - Halloween. Trick and treats. Ghost and goblins. Zombies and Bots….

One of the top priorities for CIOs today is capitalizing on the explosion of data volumes and complex data types available to their organizations today. While many are considering big data for its agility and cost advantages, they are questioning how best to leverage this still nascent technology.

While the future of value based care is unknown, one thing that is stable is the common vision that payers and providers who figure out how to collaborate, how to share information, and how to use technology to enable higher quality and lower costs will forge ahead and succeed. One thing everyone can agree on is that we must find a way to maximize mutual resources such as technology and data in order to lower costs and improve the quality of care.