New Value-based Care Environment Will Demand Better Communications

The 2015 Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) is a complex reimbursement system whose goal, according to The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), is to help lower the cost of healthcare, while delivering better quality and improving health outcomes. Its mission is to create a more comprehensive value-based framework for payments and to combine different quality-based measures into one system.

The switch to value-based reimbursement is creating challenges for many healthcare providers. Instead of being paid for the number of visits and tests they order (fee-for-service), providers’ payments will now be based on the value of care they deliver (value-based care).

If providers and health systems can’t achieve the required scores, they will incur financial penalties and lower reimbursements, creating a significant financial burden.

MACRA and other value-based reimbursement protocols will rely heavily on patient information collected in the EMR. It is therefore critical that all radiology results and images; and lab results be included in the patient’s electronic medical record.

Does your present IT environment have the connectivity to support these new digital communication challenges?

Connectivity technology solutions exist today that allow healthcare providers to choose between a very low-cost EMR integration solution that allows results to be directly delivered to any physician office EMR — or a no-cost, desktop delivery solution. Both of these technologies allow hospitals and referral centers – of all sizes — to electronically receive orders and deliver lab results and radiology reports with images to any referring physician’s EMR, ensuring a complete record for value-based reimbursement reporting.

These connectivity solutions can be used with any RIS/PACS and/or LIS to not only offer better, easier-to-use connectivity, but also provide the capabilities to support the new value-based reporting, which can improve the bottom line of healthcare providers.

In addition, some of these new technology advances, like those offered by DigitalOne, are provided via a “Software as a Service” model and bring not only the needed, secure connectivity technology, but also pre-existing EMR vendor relationships, along with the necessary resources to develop, monitor and support connectivity with referring practices. As a result, providers enjoy significant savings without the need to add to their headcount.