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August 10, 2023

In this issue

• Changes for incentive and APP membership eligibility
• Meridian scorability
• More practices live on Epic Connect
• Supporting your practice: CI update, population health outreach, nominate a Top Doctor, and more
• Epic updates
• CME



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Changes for Incentive and APP Membership Eligibility

Based on your feedback, the minimum CI score requirement will be removed for incentive eligibility in 2023. Specialists who join APP after July 1 of the performance year, and do not have any registry measures, will not be eligible for a 2023 incentive payout. CI scores will still be used to assess performance in APP for continued membership. However, all eligible providers will receive an incentive through “payment per patient” measure incentives that reward for each patient in each measure and “target achievement” measure incentives that reward completion of a task or attainment of a target. Learn more.

Meridian Scorability

Meridian enrollment and claims have been validated and loaded into Cerner. Attribution for this population is based on the patient’s selection of you as their primary care provider. Making this population scorable will give providers the opportunity to earn additional incentive on these patients. Please expect measure performance fluctuations as this Meridian population becomes scorable in the next few weeks.

More Practices Live on Epic Connect

On Aug. 1, six APP aligned practices including seven physicians went live on Epic Connect. This brings the total number to 50 practices including 95 physicians, covering almost 53,000 attributed lives. Having our APP aligned practices on our instance of Epic helps us advance our population health work, supports care coordination across the network, and greatly enhances safety and quality through a single patient record. The final go-live in 2023 for Epic Connect will be in October. Reminder: If you are interested in joining Epic Connect, reach out to the Epic Connect team for more details.

Clinical Integration updates: View the latest program updates including updated utilization measures and more.

Population health outreach: We are conducting patient outreach on your behalf to support quality outcomes and close quality care gaps. Learn more.

Nominate a Top Doctor: Chicago magazine's Top Doctors lists are based on peer nominations that are vetted and selected by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. Any licensed MD or DO may submit a nomination of a peer for possible inclusion. Submit a nomination and learn more about the process. 

Pharmacy & Therapeutics July updates: Review the latest Pharmacy and Therapeutics ambulatory and regional committees’ decisions. View July summary.

Blood supply remains low this summer: We need donors every day to meet the daily blood supply needs. Consider donating and be very conservative with blood products. In stable patients, give one unit and check laboratory values before ordering a second. 

Advancing Research:

• Research shows pregnancy guidance helps: Women with lower incomes benefit more from pregnancy guidance, according to a research study published in the Journal of Primary Care & Community Health by Leah Delfinado, MD, Marie Cabiya, MD, Karen Wennerberg, CNM and other co-authors. Read more.
• New quarterly issue of JPCRR: Read the latest issue of Journal of Patient Centered Research and Reviews, published by Advocate Aurora Research Institute.  

Among the Best in the Nation

Congratulations to our 10 Advocate Health Care hospitals named to the U.S. News & World Report ‘Best Hospitals’ list. We’re thankful for your unwavering dedication to providing patients with the safest, highest-quality care. Find out which of our specialty programs were nationally ranked.

Service Line Leadership Announcement

As we advance our Service Line integration, we are pleased to share the latest Medical Director appointments.

Epic Update: Ambulatory Epic Connect: In-Basket clean-up, primary care – PC visit type and more.

Epic Update: Hospital edition: Admit order needing cosign alert updates, presence of infection at time of surgery, medication reconciliation incomplete alert and more.

Continuing Medical Education

Reminder: 2023 ISMIE Course Offerings 



APP's partnership with ISMIE affords our members free opportunities for Continuing Medical Education and Maintenance of Certification credit and discounts on malpractice premiums. Education is available in Workday Extended Enterprise Learning, including: 

• Understanding and avoiding diagnostic errors
• Risk management essentials
• EMR on trial

14th Annual Morris M. Goldberg, MD Symposium: Family medicine

Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2-5 p.m.

Hear from a panel on how family medicine has evolved greatly over the last 50 years and where it may go next, from the general practitioner to the family physician and APC. Virtual and in-person.

Upcoming CME

Aug. 18: MEDtalks: The role of acupuncture in treating chronic pain patients

Aug. 23: Research into therapeutic applications of psychedelic compounds for use disorders

Aug. 30: 14th Annual Morris M. Goldberg, MD, Symposium (virtual and in-person)

Sept. 20: Deepening anti-racist clinical and organizational practice

Sept. 21: MEDtalks: Leadership development in psychological safety

Sept. 29: 9th Annual Narrative Medicine Conference (virtual and in-person)

Oct. 5: Common Conundrums in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Conference (in-person only)

Oct. 19: MEDtalks: Flu and COVID update

Oct. 26: 2nd Annual Healthy Active Living (HAL) Conference: Pediatric obesity (virtual and in-person)