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Tipping Point in Health Care?
By Phil Kalin, CIVHC President & CEO |
 I' ve been in health care for over 30 years and as I think about most of the problems with healthcare... access, quality, cost, safety, etc., many of the solutions to these issues were obvious even back in those early days of my career. We knew then that fee for service reimbursement created perverse incentives and that outcome based payments aligned incentives for better care and lower costs. In general, care was siloed, inefficient and demanded vertical and horizontal coordination along with tools such as electronic health records (EHR).The problem was that there was no pressure to change unless it was self-generated. Today, many of the same problems exist, but the impetus and external pressures to improve are upon us.Read more |
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Watching Physician Culture Change
By Jay Want, MD, CIVHC Chief Medical Officer |  I do a fair amount of work in payment and delivery system reform, in various communities around the country. I have been speaking to physicians about change coming for over a decade. If you have done any of this work, you may have had this common experience: that change is hard, and people have to have a really good reason to change the status quo. I admit it sometimes seemed to me that change would never come.
But lately I have noticed some of the conversations are different. I have been in a couple of meetings recently where audience physicians were answering the doubts and objections of other audience physicians. Read more |
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When Doctors Get a Union Card
By Edie Sonn, CIVHC VP of Strategic Planning |  The New York Times recently carried a front-page story about negotiations between administrators and the physicians' union at the New York Health and Hospital Authority over a new pay-for-performance arrangement. Physicians' raises will be tied to their performance on indicators such as patients' assessments of physicians' communication with them, how quickly ED patients are transferred to beds and how quickly patients are discharged, as well as quality metrics such as 30-day readmission rates for certain diagnoses.
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Spotlight on CO Innovation: Centura Health Launches Medicare ACO | |
 Colorado's Centura Health was one of a handful of organizations across the country to begin implementing a Medicare Accountable Care Organization (ACO) last month. Centura's program, Colorado Accountable Care, is the first Colorado Medicare shared savings ACO approved by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation. The program is estimated to improve care and reduce health care spending for approximately 8300 Medicare beneficiaries being seen by Centura's 13 hospitals and 460 Centura-employed physicians.
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Colorado Facilities Selected for Medicare Innovation Programs |
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Photo courtesy of centurahealth.org |
In January, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) announced that several Colorado hospitals and facilities would be participating in programs to reduce health care spending and improve care for Medicare beneficiaries. The programs, Medicare Shared Savings Accountable Care Organizations, Bundled Payments for Care Improvement (BCPI), and the Community-based Care Transitions Program (CCTP) use innovative patient-centered approaches and financial incentives to coordinate care and improve costs.
Read more |
CIVHC Connect January Webinar Rescheduled for Feb. 12, 11:30a-12:30p MT |
Due to audio technical difficulties, CIVHC is holding an additional CIVHC Connect Webinar on February 12 from 11:30a-12:30p MT for those unable to participate on January 24. During the call we will update participants on progress towards a statewide Care Transitions Campaign and provide an update and future milestones for Colorado's All Payer Claims Database.
Register Today! |
Colorado Care Transitions Project Featured in JAMA |
 Hospitalizations and rehospitalizations among Medicare patients declined nearly twice as much in communities where Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs), like the Colorado Foundation for Medical Care (CFMC), coordinated interventions that engaged whole communities to improve care than in comparison communities, according to a study in the January 23 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The results show that interventions aimed at improving care transitions-when patients move from one care setting to another, such as from a hospital to their home-reduced rehospitalizations for Medicare patients by almost six percent in 14 select communities nationwide, including northwest Denver.
Read More |
CIVHC Career Opportunities |  Interested in joining CIVHC's team? We currently have several opportunities available and welcome qualified candidates to apply.
- Policy Coordinator
- Business Analyst
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Spreading the Triple Aim Message | |
 Below are just a few examples of external stakeholder meetings where CIVHC is promoting improving health, enhancing quality and containing costs.
- Colorado RCCO Leadership Group Roundtable - Feb. 27
- Mesa County Health Leadership Consortium - Mar. 1
- SCL Health System Spring Leadership Conference - Mar. 4
- Jefferson Center for Mental Health - Mar. 6
- Puget Sound Health Alliance - Mar. 8
- Colorado Business Group on Health - Mar. 14
Contact us if you would like us to present at your upcoming event! |
The Center for Improving Value in Health Care is a non-profit, collaborative organization supporting the Triple Aim for health care: improving health, increasing quality and containing costs. We would like to thank The Colorado Trust, the Colorado Health Foundation, Rose Community Foundation and Caring for Colorado for providing funding to support our organization and focus areas.
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