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Cincinnati/Dayton Selected for Groundbreaking Primary Care Pilot 
The Cincinnati/Dayton Region has been selected to participate in a groundbreaking health care initiative called The Comprehensive Primary Care initiative (CPC). It has the potential to completely change the way primary care is delivered in up to 75 medical practices in Greater Cincinnati and Dayton. The program from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) will invest somewhere in the amount of $15-million per year, for four years, in new Medicare funds. In addition, the area's predominant commercial insurance plans have applied to partner with their own investments in primary care, as has Ohio Medicaid.
Under the plan, selected practices would receive a patient management fee averaging $20 per month for each Medicare patient. The practice will be expected to use this new income to proactively manage their patients and coordinate care across medical settings. The program is designed to test the impact comprehensive primary care can have on overall health and cost of care.
"This new program is a game changer," says Greg Ebel, executive director at the Health Collaborative. "Instead of seeing patients only when they are sick, our doctors will be compensated for their efforts to stay connected with their patients and proactively manage their treatment."
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Practice Selection
The Health Collaborative is committed to working closely with those administering the CPC program to keep the local community informed regarding developments. Please note that CMMI will be selecting the practices following an application process this summer. Details such as selection criteria, performance measures, practice commitments, and more, are still to be determined. Broad practice eligibility requirements were outlined in the original solicitation from CMMI which included the following information:
- Eligible practices must be predominantly primary care practices (family medicine, internal medicine or geriatric medicine).
- Must be located in the 14 county Southwest Ohio Region selected for this project.
- Have a minimum number (TBD) of eligible Medicare beneficiaries.
- Use an electronic health record (EHR) system or electronic registry. Preference will be given to practices that have achieved first stage meaningful use in the Medicare EHR incentive program.
Also broadly outlined were the expectations for the selected practices:
- Put a system in place to indentify high-risk, high-need patients and develop plans to intervene with an appropriate care management plan.
- Provide access to a designated care provider and EHR records on a 24/7 basis.
- Provide proactive assessments, planned care for chronic conditions, and pharmaceutical management.
- Coordinate patient care across other providers and other health settings.
- Develop programs to engage and educate patients and care givers, making them partners in their care decisions.
Important Note: This information is subject to change as more details become available. Please continue to check the Health Collaborative website for the latest updates.
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Collaborative Director
Co-Authors "Health Affairs" Article
The March Edition of Health Affairs, the nation's leading journal
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Judy Hirsh, Director of Consumer Strategy & Programs
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of health care policy, thought, and research, includes an article co-authored by Judy Hirsh, director of consumer strategy and programs at the Health Collaborative. The article titled, Public Reporting: An Experiment Shows That A Well-Designed Report On Costs And Quality Can Help Consumers Choose High-Value Health Care, discusses how patients responded to cost and quality information when evaluating health care options.
The article revealed that patients tended to equate high price with high quality when evaluating health care options on price alone however, when they were presented with quality data in addition to price, they made more sophisticated value judgments.
Subscribers to Health Affairs will find the article on page 560 of the March issue, or they can follow the online link to the abstract.
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CincinnatiMDJobs Releases 2011 Placement Data
CincinnatiMDJobs, the physician and mid-level recruiting arm of the Health Collaborative, placed 33 physicians in positions throughout the Greater Cincinnati Region in 2011.  58% of those physicians were new to the region and 60% were primary care physicians. Psychiatry and pediatrics were the next most actively recruited specialties. CincinnatiMDJobs is the region's only nonprofit physician recruiter, dedicated to supplying top talent to the region by promoting our progressive medical community. With two types of fee for service arrangements, the cost of recruiting and hiring a physician can be as low as $5,000. CincinnatiMDJobs provides professional and personal service as well as access to a database of over 700 candidates. |
| New Services for Primary Care Practices
The Health Collaborative is offering two new services at no cost to select primary care practices.
Patient Experience Surveys: 
Independent practices currently publicly reporting have been invited to participate in a community wide patient experience survey. The Health Collaborative will coordinate and fully fund two rounds of standardized Clinician and Groups Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers and Systems (CG-CAHPS) surveys to be conducted by the professional survey firm, Press Ganey. These surveys are growing in importance as quality and transparency issues mature. They are also expected to be a critical metric in upcoming pay for performance programs.
Resource, Use and Efficiency Reports: Members of the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) pilot group are now able to receive resource, use, and efficiency reports containing claims data from five commercial insurance plans. Practices are able to use the data to benchmark their own performance against the community average to identify areas of strength and opportunities for improvement.
Patient experience surveys and resource, use and efficiency reports are made possible in part by funding from Bethesda Inc and Aligning Forces for Quality, an initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
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Bright Spot: St.Elizabeth Physicians, Williamstown
Never underestimate the power of competition. Linda Treichel, clinical coordinator at St. Elizabeth Physicians, Williamstown is predicting a friendly contest between Medical Assistants in her office will contribute to a 10% improvement in patients managing their diabetes by hitting their D5 goals.
The practice began by making sure each of the six MA's understood the D5 and the importance of checking and recording all five components at each diabetic exam. Further, the practice invested in teaching the MA staff how to communicate the D5 goals effectively to patients so they could take over that responsibility from the physicians.
Then came the motivation. Each month, the MA who had the most patients meeting all five D5 goals would win a gift card.
Before long, every time a patient met all five goals there was a spontaneous celebration. "MAs would be jumping up and down clapping in the halls when they had a patient meet their goals," said Treichel. The staff soon discovered that their enthusiasm was contagious as patients became more motivated to have a victory to celebrate. "I have patients now that come in and ask, did I hit all five? They never did that before," said Treichel.
The Williamstown MA's set a goal of a 10% increase in successful achievement of D5 goals among their patients. When the new data comes out, they expect some jumping and clapping in the hallway.
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HCAN Partnership The successful partnership between Health Care Access Now (HCAN) and the Health Collaborative continued with a diabetes education event in Middletown, on April 14th, at Primary Health Solutions. The event for diabetes patients and their care givers included blood pressure and glucose screenings and a panel discussion with primary care physicians, optometrists, pharmacists, and podiatrists. 
The day took an unexpected turn for one member of the audience. As a podiatrist was describing the dangerous foot ailments that accompany diabetes, a patient realized that a foot condition she had been suffering with was more serious than she realized. The physicians referred her to the emergency room for immediate treatment.
"Situations like this are shocking reminders that patients are not getting all the information they need to manage their condition," said Judy Hirsh, director of consumer strategy and programs at the Health Collaborative. "We had a very real reminder of just how critical patient education can be." |
| Respecting Choices Training Expanding
An additional 22 health care professionals have been trained to lead patients and their families in decisions related to Medical Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (MOLST). The latest round of training was held during the last week of April at Maple Knoll Village, a senior community in Hamilton County.
Dr. Douglas Smucker, a regional authority on palliative medicine, is leading the effort to prepare the health care community for these important discussions related to end of life care. His plans call for training sessions in six to ten long term care facilities over the coming 18 months. The Health Collaborative has supported the MOLST initiative by securing funding for the Respecting Choices training curriculum. |
Board Chair Crowley Selected to AHRQ Post
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Jane Crowley
Board Chair
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Jane Durney Crowley, Board Chair of the Health Collaborative and Executive Vice President & Chief Administrative Officer at Catholic Health Partners (CHP), has been appointed to serve on the National Advisory Council of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Jane's appointment is effective until November 2014.
AHRQ's mission is to improve the quality, safety, efficiency and effectiveness of health care for all Americans. It is one of 12 agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services. Crowley has been appointed to a 21-member panel of private-sector experts who contribute a diverse perspective on American health care.
"Jane's intellect and influence are well known in Cincinnati and we are not at all surprised that she has been recognized nationally as a leader in health care improvement," said Greg Ebel, Executive Director of the Health Collaborative. "We know she will make an excellent addition to the panel."
Other Board Honors
Dick Aft - Elected Board Chair of the international United Way Retirees Association.
Maria Ortega - Selected 2012 YWCA Career Women of Achievement honoree.
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Honors and Awards 
Innovation Awards -
The Health Collaborative is proud to be selected a finalist in the Cincinnati Regional Chamber/Business Courier Innovation awards. The physician quality reporting that is collected and presented on YourHealthMatters.org was recognized in the category of emerging technology.
Small Business Excellence Awards - The Health Collaborative is a finalist in the Nonprofit category of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber's Small Business Excellence Awards. The selection of the winners will take place May 10th. We extend our congratulations to The Greater Cincinnati Health Council, also selected as a finalist. |
Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter. We hope you will forward to your friends. If you are not a subscriber, you can sign up for our updates on the home page of our Website
Sincerely,
Laura Randall
Director of Communications
the Health Collaborative
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