Exciting Times for Health Care Business Analytics

There really isn’t any better time to be a ‘health care business analytic’ major than right now.  There are exciting times ahead for those of us interested in health care business analytics.  It's the foundation that  fuels Accountable Care Organizations and the opportunities for business process improvement. 

This week’s essay question is:  Should we be excited about the prospects of creating multiple accountable care organizations in the health care delivery system?”  Whether we are excited about accountable care organizations depends on if we

• ·      are health care service consumers
• ·      are health care providers (primary care Dr., specialists, payers)
• ·      even understand what the term means

The term Accountable care organization (ACO) has come about due to recent health reform legislation to address the current issues of our US health care system : the current health care system is not effective, efficient, nor sustainable.  Today’s US health care system overtly rewards overuse and fragmentation of services. (Mark McClellan, 2010)

ACOs are comprised of groups of health care providers who together are held accountable for achieving measurable quality improvements in the health care services that they provide.  The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid believe that these quality improvements, in turn, will reduce the rate of spending growth.

What is an Accountable Care Organization?

According to the authors of this Health Affairs report (Mark McClellan, 2010), in most cases, the public and even the providers do not know what an ACO is. By definition, an accountable care organization is a set of providers, and the types of providers in that organization comprising that ACO is flexible.  But, if any given ACO can demonstrate and show verifiable evidence that their group of health care providers improved the care they provided (through better care coordination and delivery) – that ACO group shall receive a “bonus” from Medicare and Medicaid.  This process improvement initiative in the health care system overall will in turn will slow spending growth and improve the health care process for their patients.

Gathering performance improvement metrics on daily tasks, process improvement,  lowering costs which in turn possibly means working harder for less money.  That is not a happy story for a health care provider.

For the general public, this Accountable Care Organization trend is certainly something to be excited about.  Better care, provided more efficiently, and at a lower cost.  It really cannot get any better than that. 

So, in response to the question “should we be excited about the prospects of creating multiple Accountable Care Organizations in the delivery system?”  The answer is:  It depends on who you are.  For me, the “Health Care Business Analytic” Graduate Student, truly exciting times lay ahead.

Works Cited

Mark McClellan, A. N. (2010). A National Strategy To Put Accountable Care Into Practice. Health Affairs. Health Affairs.

 Health Affairs "A National Strategy To Put Accountable Care Into Practice"

Alumni Band - GO HAWKS!

I'm a Hawkeye Marching Band fanatic!  I was a member of the Hawkeye Marching Band from 1984 to 1988.  I participated in bowl games in San Diego and Anaheim California, and the grand daddy of them all the Rose Bowl in 1986.  During my band career, we travelled to Michigan, Ohio State, Indiana and Northwestern.  We travelled to a pre-season game as well, at the Meadowlands in New Jersey, man what a bus ride....  It was an awesome experience, back in the day of Hayden Fry, Chuck Long and the like.

Anyway, I'm a proud Mom of one of the newest band members, my daughter Liz, and looking forward to 8 years of cheering first Liz, then my youngest daughter Tori with the band.  Liz plays the trumpet, Tori plays the mellophone.

Liz brought home a recording of this seasons' marching band performances.  Those of you who are my 'friend' on facebook have seen these already, but for those of you who aren't my facebook friend, i'll post the links here for you to enjoy.

My Alumni Band performance, Homecoming Oct 2010, Iowa vs. Penn State

Liz and the junior band at the Insight Bowl, doing pre-game, but never as good as the old fossil version!

And highlights of the season, the Insight Bowl performance, and the corresponding performances from the regular season at Kinnick Stadium.

GO HAWKS!


Erin

Old People Humor

As most of you know, my Dad is old.  He's 86, I'm his only daughter, and he dumps it all on me.  I love him.  I found this today on You Tube, appropriate for me for this week.  Enjoy!

You Tube - 72 Year Old Comedien

Top 10 Things That Have Changed Since The Last Time I was at Iowa

10.  20 pounds
 9. My classmates aren't old enough to drink with me at the Airliner
 8. Nobody shouted Tastes Great - Less Filling at kinnick Stadium
 7. I think my grey hair looks great!
 6. My professors don't look that old 
 5. cellphones
 4. nobody will sit next to me in the student section, so I have plenty of room
 3. I listen in lecture, and I seem to get it the first time through
 2. pulling an 'all nighter" means I got up twice to use the bathroom



And the #1 thing that has changed since I was an undergrad in 1986


 1. I could be arrested for stalking the freshmen!

Did You Know....

Did you know that only 1 of every 4 IBM employees live in the United States now? the rest are off shore.

Did you know that the off shore rates for software engineering is as low as $15 an hour? That means that the engineer doing the programming takes home $8 or less.

Enough said, it's just a sad thing for companies to be off shoring so much of the technology, hurts everyone in the long run.




Erin

EHRs and RAVEN

I've spent a small portion of my weekend learning about RAVEN and the HL7 Connect programs.  RAVEN is from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and HL7 Connect is a software package from the US Department of Health and Human Services.

RAVEN

RAVEN  (or the Java version jRAVEN) is The Resident Assessment Validation and Entry that provides an option for Nursing Homes to collect and maintain facility, resident and MDS 3.0 Assessment information for subsequent submission to the appropriate state and/or national data repository.  MDS stands for Minimum Data Set, and is data required by CMS to be uploaded by all Nursing Homes.  RAVEN and jRAVEN run on the Windows operating system.

HL7 Connect

HL7 Connect is an open source software package, and was written for the HITECH Act, to enable all health organizations to electronically transmit and share electronic health records.  Due to the recent Meaningful Use legislation, that requires all physicians to populate and upload electronic health records. Meaningful Use is through CMS - The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid and The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.  Three main components of Meaningful Use are specified:

1. The use of a certified EHR in a meaningful manner, such as e-prescribing.
2. The use of certified EHR technology for electronic exchange of health information to improve quality of health care.
3. The use of certified EHR technology to submit clinical quality and other measures.

"Meaningful Use" means providers need to show they're using certified EHR technology in ways that can be measured significantly in quality and in quantity.


I'm finding it interesting that the RAVEN software and the Minimum Data Set and the HL7 Connect software run on different platforms....   and notice that I didn't say that RAVEN created an EHR, RAVEN creates and MDS report for upload.  I'm on my own mission right now to understand why and understand the differences between the MDS record and the EHR.

I setup RAVEN today here on my laptop, and I'm in the processes of installing HL7 Connect on my server here at home (yes, what a nerd, I do have a unix server at home....)

All this geeking around keeps my mind off my Dad, he's 86 years old, and his health is failing. His brain is fully intact, but his body is giving out on him.  I'm not sure which is worse, as if you're body goes, your mind is fully aware of it.   I'm hoping to keep him comfortable and have a few more weekends of movies, steaks and martini's this spring while I build my servers for this project I'm working on.

Holden Cancer Research Center at the University of Iowa

During a break from my Health Economics class last night, I read the plaque for the dedication of the Holden Cancer Research Center.  It's an amazing building and an amazing gift and I wanted to share it.  If you have ever been to Williamsburg, Iowa, just passing through the town you wouldn't expect there to be a family with $25 million dollars, let along such a generous and giving family at that.



Here's some text from the website:

A landmark $25 million gift from four generations of the Holden family of Williamsburg, Iowa, will provide unprecedented support for cancer research, education and treatment at the University of Iowa. In recognition of this gift, UI officials will request approval from the Board of Regents, State of Iowa, at their September meeting for the naming of the Holden Cancer Center at the UI.

The family's gift, through the UI Foundation, also supports the Roland and Ruby Holden Cancer Research Laboratories in the UI's new Medical Education and Biomedical Research Facility, now under construction on the UI health sciences campus.

The Holden family gift honors the late Roland W. Holden, who died in 1995. Holden founded Holden Foundation Seeds Inc., a corn seed research and genetics company based in Williamsburg, Iowa, 30 miles west of Iowa City, in 1937. His family chose to celebrate his legacy by supporting research and treatment that may eventually cure the disease that took his life.

To the Holden family, I'm sorry for your loss, and thank you for your contribution to science.

Holden Cancer Research Center


Erin