At the upcoming HIMSS19 Global Conference & Exhibition, health IT vendor Arcadia.io will introduce the Arcadia Health Risk Assessment, what the company describes as a smart annual wellness visit application for accurate risk capture.
"Accurate risk capture is vital to success in risk-based contracts, determining whether an organization will have enough funding to sustain its patient care mission," said Michael Gleeson, chief strategy and innovation officer at Arcadia.io. "Patient risk must be assessed and documented annually, and health systems routinely leave millions of dollars on the table when providers fail to complete documentation."
A structured approach
The Health Risk Assessment application guides providers through a structured approach to risk assessment and documentation during an annual wellness visit. It uses aggregated EHR and claims data to make it faster and easier to identify and close risk documentation gaps, reducing provider abrasion, Gleeson said.
Arcadia.io has its eyes on a few trends that it will be focusing on at HIMSS19, planning to discuss these trends in detail with attendees.
"The advent of interface-free integration to push information to the exam room represents a new way of thinking about interoperability," Gleeson said. "Historically, approaches to interoperability have revolved around file structures and standardization. From EDI to FHIR, our industry has always relied on building interfaces to support data sharing."
There's an assumption that interoperability always requires complex, highly standardized interface efforts, he added.
"But that's not always true, and new interface-free integration approaches open new use-cases that reduce provider abrasion, minimize effort for health system IT departments, and make better information available to physicians at the point of care," said Gleeson.
EHR vendors expanding
On another front, EHR vendors are expanding into both new global markets and new product portfolios, typically in population health management and revenue cycle management – but also into areas further afield, with Epic moving into the life insurance space, Gleeson said.
"As EHR vendors strive to reinvigorate stagnant growth, CIOs will want to see whether they invest in improving their core products or chasing the next new thing," he stated. "A couple of years ago, the HIMSS community was talking about 'EHR 2.0' as the harbinger of real healthcare transformation driven by a patient-centered, value-driven approach to care – but have we really seen that change?"
Elsewhere in the industry, more healthcare organizations are moving to value-based care, with an increasing number taking on downside risk. And to succeed under risk, these healthcare organizations have to be able to push insights to their providers and get them to take action.
"These incremental actions a provider takes in the exam room are cumulatively what drives an organization's performance in value-based care," Gleeson said.
However, traditional interface-based approaches to pushing information to providers have required considerable IT investment and been poorly received by care teams, he added.
"We now see chief medical officers working closely with CIOs to find ways to reduce provider abrasion and deliver insights that can fuel real care transformation," he said.
Advice for HIMSS19 attendees
Asked what advice he would give to HIMSS19 attendees, Gleeson had two things to say.
"Healthcare CIOs should work closely with CMOs and CMIOs to really understand the data required to support value-based care initiatives, and collaborate on selecting technology that delivers that data via effective workflows with minimal provider abrasion," he advised.
Similarly, he added, CIOs should work with CMOs – especially in organizations that have significant amounts of money at stake in downside risk contracts – to identify when and how an enterprise clinical data asset that sits outside the EHR can offer significant advantages.
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Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT
Email the writer: bill.siwicki@himssmedia.com
