GaHIN Participating in International Heart Failure Project

SUBSCRIBE September 2018

GaHIN Participating in New Multi-Hospital Heart Failure Project Sponsored by World Economic Forum

Atlanta is a center for global health, and that designation is more apt than ever thanks to a new multi-agency project involving GaHIN. Atlanta was chosen by the World Economic Forum as the first U.S. site for their global Value-Based Health Care Initiative. The core tenets of Value-based Health Care (VBHC) revolve around the idea of aligning all stakeholders of a system towards value delivered to patients.

Healthcare organizations participating in the "Value-Based Health Care Atlanta Heart Failure" project will report non-risk adjusted heart failure outcomes and benchmark risk-adjusted outcomes within patient segments to:

Identify relevant variations and determine drivers of variation (including socioeconomic factors)
Codify best practices (those that produce the best outcomes)

GaHIN will serve as the Benchmarking Authority for the project, managing a centralized data repository, ensuring data quality, conducting analyses and sharing reports.

"GaHIN embraced the opportunity to be part of this project for several reasons," said Denise Hines, Executive Director of GaHIN. "Our overarching reason to participate is that this project could provide new insights and improve the standard of care for heart failure patients not just in Georgia, but around the globe. This is research that has the potential to save lives."

Hines also noted that the hospitals expected to participate must become full GaHIN members, and that it offers the opportunity for GaHIN members to conduct analytics and/or participate on a clinical steering committee. GaHIN is also exploring the potential for a broader collaboration with the American Heart Association.

Just the Facts - VBHC AHF Project

Population: Class III and IV heart failure patients with a recent inpatient stay at a health facility

Geography: patients who admit to facilities in Cobb, Fulton and DeKalb

Intervention: evidence-based post-discharge intervention that addresses social determinants of health in addition to healthcare compliance

Project Partners: the 25 signed partners include American Heart Association, ARCHI, City of Atlanta, Atlanta Regional Commission, Morehouse School of Medicine and metro Atlanta hospitals.

2019 Promoting Interoperability Final Rule

The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) has released the 2019 new rule for the Medicare and Medicaid Promoting Interoperability Programs (PI) (formerly known as the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentive Programs). Along with the name change, other provisions have been made to better align with goals of the program. Some of the major changes are listed below:

EHR reporting period of a minimum of any continuous 90-day period in each of calendar years (CYs) 2019 and 2020 for new and returning participants attesting to CMS or their State Medicaid agency.
For the Medicare Promoting Interoperability Program, the rule finalizes a smaller set of objectives
CMS finalized two new e-Prescribing measures related to e-prescribing of opioids (Schedule II controlled substances). The Query of PDMP measure will be optional in CY 2019 and will be required beginning in CY 2020. The Verify Opioid Treatment Agreement will be optional for both CYs 2019 and 2020.
Changes to measures, including removing certain measures that do not emphasize interoperability and the electronic exchange of health information.
All eligible hospitals and CAHs under the Medicare and Medicaid Promoting Interoperability Programs are required to use the 2015 Edition of CEHRT.

Thanks, We Couldn't Do It Without You!

GaHIN's Board of Directors is composed of health industry thought leaders who give generously of their time and talent to support the statewide HIE

Dr. Warren Hutchings is a Board member and long-time supporter of GaHIN. He shared this photograph from the 2018 National Medical Association Annual Conference of himself with Thomas Mason, MD, Chief Medical officer, ONC HIT (R).

Thank you, Dr. Hutchings, for your support of GaHIN!