AF4Q News Update

OCTOBER 2011

WHAT'S NEW WITH CINCINNATI AF4Q

Your resource for updates and important news regarding Cincinnati AF4Q and the Health Collaborative

Bestselling Author Chip Heath to Address Dinner Audience Nov 3

There is still time to register for our annual awards dinner and hear acclaimed business writer Chip Heath. Heath and his brother Dan are monthly contributors to "Fast Company Magazine" and co-authors of "Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard".

Heath will deliver a keynote address that is sure to hit home for those of us managing the challenges of change in our organizations and elsewhere. We will also recognize this year's recipients of our Collaborative Leadership awards. Join us November 3 at the Westin in downtown Cincinnati. Registration on the the Health Collaborative Web site will close Tuesday evening. A small number of tickets will be available at the door. Please call Morgan at 513.979.0055 for information about last minute purchases.

Greater Cincinnati Leading the Region in Patient-Centered Medical Homes

PCMH Award

An analysis of PCMH locations in the central Midwest shows Greater Cincinnati has more PCMH practices than any other community in the region. Greater Cincinnati has 37 NCQA recognized practices compared to 16 in Cleveland, 11 in Columbus and 21 in all of Kentucky and Indiana combine. This fall the 20 local practices that made up the pilot and co-pilot groups in the Health Collaborative's PCMH initiative celebrated the two year mark in their practice transformation. The Health Collaborative recognized the occasion with a lunch and awards presentation.

Each of the 20 practices had either received their NCQA PCMH recognition or was finalizing the application requirements. As part of the festivities each group was asked to comment on the results they have had. Many practice leaders reported that the initial staff hesitancy and resistance gave way to increased job satisfaction and a feeling of teamwork. Early analysis of claims data indicate that patients in the pilot practices have better diabetes outcomes and use the emergency department less frequently than other practices in the community.

Insurance Plans Agree to Extend PCMH Payments

The PCMH practices that were receiving a per-month/per-patient payment will continue to do so. The payments were due to expire in September. The Health Collaborative, working with the insurance plans, secured the payments two years ago. They were in recognition of the time consuming patient management required by the PCMH that is not compensated the way a procedure or treatment would be. In addition to Anthem and United extending their current per-patient/per-month agreements with the Health Collaborative's PCMH pilots, Humana recently agreed to extend the payment to all NCQA recognized PCMH practices.

NCQA Accepts Practice Public Reporting from the Health Collaborative

NCQA Logo

In a major departure from normal procedure, the NCQA has agreed to accept data submitted by the Health Collaborative for diabetes and cardiovascular care to meet the data submission requirements for their provider recognition programs. This means that physicians participating in public reporting for YourHealthMatters.org will be able to choose to have the same data set they report to the Health Collaborative uploaded to the NCQA. The agreement with the NCQA eliminates the need for practices to reformat the public reporting data to meet NCQA specifications. Reporting practices will also receive a 20 percent discount on the NCQA reporting fee.

"We recognize that multiple reporting requirements are a burden on practices," said Melissa Kennedy, Director of Operations at the Health Collaborative. "We are very pleased that the NCQA recognized the integrity of our data collection methods and agreed to accept the data from us on behalf of the community."

Technical arrangements to facilitate the data transfer are currently being studied. The plan calls for the coordination to be fully functional in time for the YourHealthMatters data submission in 2012.

QID5 Kicks Off

PCMH pilots and co-pilots interested in learning new quality improvement techniques began an 18 month development program related to raising their D-5 scores. D-5 is the term that refers to the five indicators of optimal diabetes management.

Six practice teams totaling 33 providers are participating in this Health Collaborative training, made possible with funds from the Beacon Collaborative. The opening session included an introduction to the tools and techniques used to leverage quality improvement in patient care and a review of sample data around the D-5. The QID5 development program will continue with quarterly learning sessions. In between the practices will have the opportunity to phase in the techniques they are learning and bring their challenges and success back to the class for discussion.

Your Health Matters 2.0

The Health Collaborative's public reporting website,

YourHealthMatters.org has re-launched with a new design and expanded reports on physician practice performance. Visitors to the site can now find diabetes performance scores from over 40% of the region's primary care physicians representing 135 office locations and more than 450 individual physicians. A new report on cardiovascular disease outcomes was recently added to the site and work is underway to add colon cancer screening outcomes in early 2012. Patient experience reports are also planned for the future.

The site includes new tools and resources for patients to help them maximize their relationship with their doctors and make better decisions about their health and health care. The innovative site was developed exclusively for our Greater Cincinnati community incorporating the input from extensive consumer research and with the help of the primary physician community. The upgrade and additional reporting was made possible with support from Bethesda Inc.

Read more

Consumer Council Formed

Giving voice to the wide variety of people who depend on our health care system is a challenge. A Consumer Council has now been formed to capture a range of perspectives and include those viewpoints in the ongoing collaboration.

The 16-member Council meets monthly to review and discuss health care transformation issues that impact patients. Council members were selected based on their history of community service and interest in health care issues. The members were selected to represent a number of situations that impact a person's health care experience including employment status, age, experience managing a chronic condition, familiarity with technology and geographic location in the Tri-state. Some members represent a consumer interest group such as the representative from the Council on Aging.

Each was asked to become well-versed in one of the five elements of health care transformation and serve on one additional health care transformation advisory board. Members have been briefed on the state of public reporting, health information technology, payment reform, quality improvement and consumer engagement.

"These individuals and their collective voice will be a tremendous asset," said Judy Hirsh, Director of Consumer Strategy and Programs. "Gathering their input will help assure that consumer views and priorities are thoughtfully and effectively understood and incorporated in Greater Cincinnati health care initiatives."

The members are making a large commitment and we are grateful for their willingness to serve. The members of the Consumers council are:

Kim Clark, Housing Business Manager at the Council on Aging of Southwestern Ohio
Tamaya Dennard, Legal Assistant at Wood & McDaniel, LLC
Howard Elliott, small business owner in Over-the-Rhine
Diane Francis, Director of Reimbursement and Health Care Economics at Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc.
Stephanie Harris, Healthy Lifestyle Advocate at Complete Wellness & Associates, LLC
Vanessa Hayes-Thomas, Program Manager at the Ohio Department of Development
Bhavani Kasibhatla, Researcher at Proctor & Gamble
Kerry Loeffler, Business Coach and Consultant at Talent Trust
Geneva Miller, Executive Administrative Assistant to COO and CFO at UC Physicians
Helen Quick-Trimble, Senior Associate at United Way
Robert Rack, retired Chief Circuit Mediator of the Court of Appeals
Raushanah Reed, Wal-Mart management
Jim Ryerson, Human Resources Executive at General Electric
Rose Todd-Stanford, knowledgeable health care consumer
Amber Twitty, President and CEO of Dorothy Grace Consulting
Dave Zanitsh, retired Duke Energy upper management

HCAN Partnership Reaches Into the Community

Three separate outreach workshops reached over 220 people with important information about diabetes. The Health Collaborative participated in the program sponsored by Heath Care Access Now (HCAN). The events were targeted to residents of urban communities and all participants were offered free health screenings. The fun and interactive program included information about the risk factors for diabetes and tips for prevention. There were sessions on fitness and nutrition, including a cooking demonstration. Every guest went home with a SWAG bag containing a pedometer, a workout shirt and a gift certificate from Kroger.

Care About Your Care Draws a Standing Room Only Crowd

Over 320 community health care advocates gathered in the Kingsgate Marriott on September 15 to participate in a national event to bring focus to the role of patient engagement in health care transformation. Dave deBronkart, also known as e-Patient Dave was the keynote speaker. He told the crowd about the success he found using technology to become an informed patient during his battle with cancer.

Cincinnati joined communities across America to mark

Care About Your Care month and participate in a national simulcast about health care transformation hosted from Washington D.C. by television's Dr. Oz. The National production positioned Cincinnati as a community leading the health care transformation movement. Locally, the event provided and update on the many transformation initiatives currently underway. It also featured the organizations and individuals on the frontlines as they gave program updates and were recognized for work in progress.

Participants were brought up-to-date on the movement to transition primary care groups to Patient Center Medical Homes (PCMH) and to compensate these practices for the additional time and attention the practice model requires. There were also presentations about public reporting and technology tools such as yourhealthmatters.org. Care About Your Care-Cincinnati was presented by the Health Collaborative and partner organizations seeking to align all stakeholders in our area around health care transformation and quality improvement. We are grateful to Employers Health for co-sponsoring the event and to the many people and partnering organizations that contributed to its success.

Xavier, United Way partner with Collaborative on Indicators

Hypertension is Greater Cincinnati's most prevalent chronic condition and obesity continues on the increase. These are two of the findings in the fifth edition of Indicators of Healthy Communities. The report was compiled by the Health Collaborative, Xavier University and the United Way of Greater Cincinnati. This year's assessment for the first time includes trend charts. The report is available on line at indicatorsofhealthycommunities.org

MD Resource Center Partners with The Academy of Medicine

The MD Resource Center, the Health Collaborative's physician recruiting service has received preferred vendor status from The Academy of Medicine of Cincinnati. Academy members are eligible for a 10 percent discount on the price of all Cincinnati MD resource center services. The center has developed a variety of new service options including permanent placement, full membership or a hybrid model.

The center has placed 22 physicians and mid-levels going into the 4th quarter of 2011.

The mission of the resource center is to promote Greater Cincinnati as a progressive community for the practice of medicine and to assist local hospital systems and medical groups as they recruit top talent.

Honors

Dr. Robert Graham, Special Advisor to the Health Collaborative, was honored by the American Academy of Family Physicians with the organization's Lifetime Achievement Award. The prestigious John G. Walsh Award was presented to Dr. Graham at the organization's national meeting in September.