National Nurses Month 2023: Self-Care

It is that time of year again where we celebrate nurses and all they do. This year the American Nurses Association (ANA) has chosen the theme “You Make a Difference”…

Read More

Health Data Literacy: A Story is Worth 1,000 Data Points

October is Health Literacy Month! Health literacy seems more important now than ever, with multiple sources identifying poor health literacy as a barrier to COVID-19 response efforts. John Zarocostas identified COVID-19 as an “infodemic” as much as a pandemic.

Read More

Transitioning from CDA to FHIR

FHIR, HL7’s latest standard, supports the document paradigm without document restrictions. FHIR includes a RESTful API out of the box, as well as alternate syntaxes (i.e., XML and JSON). The industry will need transition strategies for those invested heavily in CDA while new implementers move directly to FHIR.

Read More

Has the Clock Run Out on Electronic Claims Attachments?

With the shift towards value-based care, payers still need access to clinical information for reimbursement decisions as well as for cost and quality metrics and standardizing enough of the clinical record to satisfy the anticipated attachments reg would be an excellent next step in that direction.

Read More

What is AUR and Why Do We Care?

AUR is more than an airport code for a commune in southern France (Aurillac, if you are curious). AUR is an important facet of public health. Using the Antimicrobial Use and Resistance (AUR) reporting module, hospitals can report and analyze antimicrobial use and/or resistance data.

Read More

Why Payers Should Play with FHIR

This blog introduces participants working on clinical data exchange and value-based care to HL7’s Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard and Connectathon, an event that tests FHIR’s interoperability mettle. Since Connectathon 1 in 2012, the buzz around FHIR has grown exponentially. Word on the street is HL7 has trouble finding hotel conference rooms large enough to fit all attendees! HL7 will host Connectathon 14 in January 2017 in San Antonio.

Read More

What Eligible Clinicians Need to Know About Proposed Changes to the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA)

The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 changed the way Medicare rewards clinicians for providing quality care. CMS released a proposed rule in April 2016 to carry out key provisions of MACRA and implement two payment paths available to “eligible clinicians” (EC) as part of the proposed “Quality Payment Program”: (1) the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System and (2) the Alternative Payment Model Incentive. The proposed “Quality Payment Program” replaces the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula for paying eligible clinicians based on value and quality of care, which aligns with CMS’s goal to replace Fee-for-Service (FFS) volume-based payment with a value-based system.

Read More

Does Risk-Adjustment for Sociodemographic Status (SDS) Have an Impact on Hospital Performance?

Ongoing research examines the impact of applying sociodemographic status (SDS) risk-adjustment to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) quality reporting programs. The main driver for investigation is a community assertion that SDS risk-adjustment is necessary to accurately gauge the quality of care given to patients of diverse backgrounds. Contrary to popular belief, recent research produced evidence that SDS risk-adjustment has little to no impact on hospital performance ratings.

Read More

Comments on Standards for Claims Attachments

Co-author: Kanwarpreet Sethi   Lantana Consulting Group commented on the testimony provided on February 16, 2016, to the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS) Subcommittee on Standards, Hearing…

Read More

2017 Interoperability Standards Advisory

Lantana Consulting Group submitted comments on March 18, 2016 in response to the Office of the National Coordinator’s (ONC) request for feedback on the 2017 Interoperability Standards Advisory (2016 Advisory).…

Read More