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In This Issue

Getting Mad with the APCD

Consumers are More Than Ready

Risk Adjustment Utilization in Colorado APCD

Spotlight on Innovation: COMPASS and Kaiser Permanente Colorado

Virtual Price Transparency Summit

Recent News

With Governor's Signature, Investigation on Health-Care Cost Drivers to Begin

Rate Relief is in Sight for Mountain Resorts

Data Stories are Told Over Years, Not Minutes

Leveraging Medicare Data to Improve Care

Committee OKs Pricing Transparency Bill

Fixing the Health Care Payment System

Technology Made Health Care Expensive. Can it Now Control Costs?

Community Demographics Linked to Hospital Readmissions

What Big Data Can't Tell Us About Health Care

Modernizing Medical Education to Advance New Care Models and Foster Continuous Quality Improvement

Doctors Overlook Lucrative Procedures When Naming Unwise Treatments

Getting Mad with the APCD

By Edie Sonn, CIVHC Interim CEO and VP of Strategic Initiatives

When people have to pay more than others for the same services, and the reasons are unclear, it's not surprising when anger ensues. We've seen this play out recently with the health insurance rates in Colorado's resort communities, and Colorado's Division of Insurance has responded by evaluating data to search for potential solutions. It was a perfect illustration of how data from the All Payer Claims Database can inform those debates and help shape responses.

Consumers are More Than Ready

By Tracey Campbell, CIVHC Director of All Payer Claims Database

My two 79 year-old parents recently marveled at the ease at which they can see results from lab tests and x-rays from University Hospital's patient portal at their own convenience before going to see their doctors for their follow-up visit. They were thrilled that their personal health information is available to them, right in front of them, just as their physician sees it. And shouldn't they? This is their health information and it's vital to help them engage and take care of themselves.

Risk Adjustment and Burden of Illness in Colorado APCD Utilization Compared to Expected Reports

By Jonathan Mathieu, CIVHC Director of Data and Research

(The third installment in an ongoing series dedicated to helping Coloradans

better understand health care claims data available on www.cohealthdata.org)

Previous articles in this series attempted to explain risk adjustment and burden of illness concepts and demonstrate how these concepts apply to Total Cost of Care Compared to Expected (C2E) reports available on the Colorado APCD website. This third installment explains how risk adjustment and burden of illness concepts apply to Utilization C2E reports and provides examples of how this information can be used to better understand potential reasons for observed variation in the use of health care services in Colorado.

Spotlight on Innovation: Finding True North: COMPASS and Kaiser Permanente Colorado

By Stephanie Spriggs, CIVHC Program Assistant

Medicare and Medicaid patients on the Front Range struggling with depression and chronic conditions such as diabetes or cardiovascular disease now have a COMPASS by which to navigate their care.

Since 2012, Kaiser Permanente Colorado (KPCO) has been part of a consortium of health care providers participating in the COMPASS program initiated by the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement and funded by a grant from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

What is Keeping Price Transparency From Becoming a Reality? A Virtual Summit

CIVHC is pleased to be presenting at the upcoming Virtual Summit on Price Transparency, hosted by Catalyst for Payment Reform on May 20th.

We hope you can join us for this half-day, webinar-based summit as we answer the following questions:

How do consumers understand price, quality, and value?
What information and which tools help them be informed shoppers?
What are the best sources for cost and quality data?
What can the public and private sector learn from one another?

The Summit will provide a tremendous opportunity to hear from experts in the field, including Francois de Brantes from HCI3, Tyler Brannen from the NH Department of Insurance, Tracey Campbell from CIVHC, Suzanne Delbanco from CPR, Doug Ghertner from Change Healthcare, Mike O'Neil from Healthcare Bluebook, Lynn Quincy from Consumers Union, Jennifer Schneider from Castlight Health, and Shoshanna Sofaer from Baruch College.

Click to Register

Stay on Top of Important Reform Updates!

Looking for more ways to keep apprised of Colorado and national health care reform activities focused on the Triple Aim? Click on one of the links below to follow or like CIVHC today!

The Center for Improving Value in Health Care is a non-profit, collaborative organization supporting the Triple Aim for health care in Colorado: better health, better care, and lower 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.