The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced plans to test patient engagement strategies that target six “preference-sensitive” conditions—that is, conditions for which there isn’t a single treatment option and for which decision-support needs to recognize the values of individual patients and families. The two models are the Direct Decision Support Model—which will… Continue Reading
IPRO to Support State Oversight of NY Adult Care Services
IPRO will be responsible for supporting State oversight of long-term, mostly nonmedical adult care residential services for New Yorkers unable to live independently, under a new contract with the New York State Department of Health’s Division of Assisted Living. Under New York State law, Adult Care Facilities (ACFs) are defined as certified adult homes or… Continue Reading
Feds Announce Medicare QI Innovation Projects
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced twenty Special Innovation Projects awarded to twelve regional Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organizations (QIN-QIOs), that focus on evidence-based efforts to improve care at lower cost and to spread local innovations for larger impact. In characterizing these awards, the American Health Quality Association—the QIO trade association—noted… Continue Reading
IPRO to Lead Antibiotic Campaign
In a Medicare-funded effort that began this fall, IPRO is now leading a three-region Antibiotic Stewardship project focusing on the outpatient setting. Antibiotic Stewardship is directed at measuring and improving how antibiotics are prescribed and used. Improving antibiotic prescribing includes strategies to modify prescribing practices to align them with evidence based recommendations. Antibiotic use is… Continue Reading
IPRO Renews Critical Hospital Contract
IPRO has won renewal of an important New York contract that oversees hospitals’ compliance with critical physician-in-training work hour requirements. The contract with the New York State Department of Health – which IPRO has held since the compliance program’s inception in 2001 – involves unannounced site visits, surveys, interviews and responsibility for complaint investigations at… Continue Reading
Report Analyzes Hospital Pay-for-Performance Results
An impact analysis of five hospital Pay-for-Performance programs on 3,218 hospitals across the U.S. shows a one-year savings of $930 million to the Medicare program. The Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA) analyzed the affects of five hospital P4P programs now in operation: quality reporting, meaningful use (MU) of electronic health records, value-based purchasing, readmissions… Continue Reading
New York Offers All-Payer Database Regulation
The New York State Department of Health has released for comment regulations governing the operation of an all-payer data base it believes will have a positive impact on the effort to evaluate the cost and quality of health services. Calling the current payment data collection system “fragmented, inconsistent and incomplete,” DOH says an all-payer approach… Continue Reading
Feds Issue Medicare Observation Stay Language
Interested parties had until September 1 to submit comments on draft language developed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) explaining “observation status” coverage issues to Medicare beneficiaries. Under a law passed last year, CMS is obliged to provide written notices to beneficiaries explaining the implications of hospital-based observation stays longer than 24… Continue Reading
IPRO Wins Employee Engagement Award
IPRO is the winner of a 2016 Silver Innovation Award from Avatar Solutions (Press Ganey), a leading provider of employee engagement surveys nationwide. The award recognizes successful expansion of the organization’s Town Hall Meeting program, with a format that permits participation by all employees in a number of locations across the entire organization, utilizing web-ex… Continue Reading
IPRO Debuts New Wellness Newsletter
IPRO has developed a new consumer-focused newsletter aimed at supporting wellness among seniors and their families. The first few issues of the newsletter will be available in print and electronic formats—the goal is eventually to issue editions in electronic format only. The editor is Clare Bradley, MD, MPH, who serves as IPRO’s Senior Vice President… Continue Reading