In This Week’s Issue:
1. Tony Coelho in Huffington Post: ‘Patient Voices, Patient Value: Stepping Out of the Ivory Towers and into the Real World’, click here to view the article.
2. PCORI Names Kristin Carman as Director of Public and Patient Engagement, click here to view the press release.
3. GAO Announces Nomination Opportunity for Openings on MedPAC, click here to view the announcement.
4. CMS Announces Continued Interest in Alternative Pay Models for 2017, click here to view the press release.
5. What's the Future of Value-Based Programs Under President-Elect Donald Trump?, click here to view the article.
6. Video: Dr. Joseph Alvarnas on Importance of Patient Voice in Value-Based Cancer Care, click here to view the video.
7. The PCORI Blog: The Importance of the Patient Voice, click here to view the blog post.
8. Upcoming Events and Webinars, see details below.
9. Medical Journal Articles, see details below.
10. AHRQ Effective Program Updates, see details below.
1. Tony Coelho in Huffington Post: ‘Patient Voices, Patient Value: Stepping Out of the Ivory Towers and into the Real World’, click here to view the article.
2. PCORI Names Kristin Carman as Director of Public and Patient Engagement, click here to view the press release.
3. GAO Announces Nomination Opportunity for Openings on MedPAC, click here to view the announcement.
4. CMS Announces Continued Interest in Alternative Pay Models for 2017, click here to view the press release.
5. What's the Future of Value-Based Programs Under President-Elect Donald Trump?, click here to view the article.
6. Video: Dr. Joseph Alvarnas on Importance of Patient Voice in Value-Based Cancer Care, click here to view the video.
7. The PCORI Blog: The Importance of the Patient Voice, click here to view the blog post.
8. Upcoming Events and Webinars, see details below.
9. Medical Journal Articles, see details below.
10. AHRQ Effective Program Updates, see details below.
1. Tony Coelho in Huffington Post: ‘Patient Voices, Patient Value: Stepping Out of the Ivory Towers and into the Real World’
In a new article published in Huffington Post, PIPC Chairman Tony Coelho discusses the importance of recognizing “value” to the patient in the health reform debate. “While I may not concur with everything coming out of the new administration on health care, I agree broadly with the need for policymakers to get out of the ivory towers. Policymakers need to listen to real patients and embrace health care solutions that matter to patients, caregivers and people with disabilities. And frankly, in this drive to value-based health care, it hasn’t always been about us. It’s often about what is most cost effective for the ‘average patient’ and what is most cost effective for the payer. But I am not average. You are not average. We are the reason a health care system exists - our health and well-being, our treatment, our recovery… This administration can build bridges to the community of patients and people with disabilities by demonstrating they do not want a one-size-fits-all system of health care defined by people in lab coats. If this administration truly wants to get input from outside the establishment, then they should be looking to patients for insight as to how to improve the health care system.” Click here to view the article.
2. PCORI Names Kristin Carman as Director of Public and Patient Engagement
According to a recent press release, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) has named Kristin Carman, MA, PhD, as its new Director of Public and Patient Engagement. According to the press release, “In this position, she will be responsible for leading and directing PCORI’s overall efforts to see that patients and other healthcare stakeholders are fully involved in and guide all aspects of PCORI’s work. Carman joins PCORI from the American Institutes for Research, where she served as Vice President and Director of the Center for Patient and Consumer Engagement, and a Co-Director of the Health Policy and Research Group, a team of more than 70 health-services research professionals. In that role, she helped conduct research on issues of public importance in healthcare quality, access, and financing; comparative effectiveness; patient and family engagement; health systems improvement; public deliberation; and health-related communications. She also led groundbreaking engagement projects funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).” Click here to view the press release.
3. GAO Announces Nomination Opportunity for Openings on MedPAC
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has announced it is now accepting letters of nomination to serve on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). Established by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, MedPAC is a nonpartisan legislative branch agency that provides Congress with policy advice on the Medicare program. GAO is now accepting nominations for MedPAC appointments that will be effective May 1, 2017. Letters of nomination and resumes should be submitted no later than March 10, 2017 to [email protected].
4. CMS Announces Continued Interest in Alternative Pay Models for 2017
Last Wednesday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a report stating they expect 359,000 clinicians to sign up to participate in Alternative Payment Models (APMs) in 2017, which would serve more than 12.3 million Medicare or Medicaid beneficiaries. By the end of 2018, the agency estimated that 25 percent of clinicians in MACRA’s Quality Payment Program will participate in APMs. Those APMs include the Medicare Shared Savings Program, the Next Generation ACO Model, the Comprehensive End-Stage Renal Disease Care Model, and the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus Model. The agency touts the numbers as evidence of success in shifting away from fee-for-service and into value-based care, and sees the models as a way to improve the quality of services to beneficiaries while lowering costs.
Two of those models – the Comprehensive End-Stage Renal Disease Care Model and the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus Model – are currently being tested by the CMS Innovation Center (CMMI). The future of the CMMI and the pilot programs it creates are in Republicans' crosshairs. Opponents say the center oversteps its authority when it mandates participation in a program, and the healthcare industry has pushed back at times, saying the agency is moving too quickly for the industry to keep up. Click here to view the press release.
5. What's the Future of Value-Based Programs Under President-Elect Donald Trump?
An article published last week in MedCity News comments on the future of value-based programs under President Trump. As the author explains, “One example among many [is] section 3021 of the ACA established the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation...The CMMI hasn't been sitting still. The center has been busy developing a number of innovative programs that will affect healthcare for years to come, including bundled payment models, new ACO models, and the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) program. Many of these programs have already affected our professions, and many more will have a lasting effect on the future of healthcare.” Click here to view the article.
6. Video: Dr Joseph Alvarnas on Importance of Patient Voice in Value-Based Cancer Care
In a video published in the American Journal of Managed Care, Dr. Joseph Alvarnas of the City of Hope and editor-in-chief of Evidence-Based Oncology discusses the importance of the patient voice in value-based cancer care. “The transformation to value-based oncology care must be centered upon the priorities and needs of patients and their families,” Dr. Alvarnas said. “This vision is starting to be incorporated in areas like the Oncology Care Model, which looks at patient-reported outcomes and experiences.” Click here to view the video.
7. The PCORI Blog: The Importance of the Patient Voice
Patient Family Advisor Alexis Synder emphasizes the importance of including the patient voice in healthcare in a recent PCORI blog post. Providing anecdotes drawn from her personal life, Alexis shares her experiences in the healthcare system when she noticed that there was a need to include patients and families in the healthcare decision making and recovery process. In doing so, she highlights the importance of PCORI. “The patient voice is so critical,” she writes. “Providers and healthcare systems can best help patients in their times of need when patients, as well as their caregivers, are fully included in decision making. This is where the work being done by PCORI is so critically important. PCORI recognizes that it takes the whole community.” Click here to view the blog post.
8. Upcoming Events and Webinars
Getting to Know PCORI: From Application to Closeout (January 2017)
January 23 - 24, 2017, Washington Marriott Georgetown
Click here for details.
PCORI Online Training
January 24, 2017, 1:00-2:30 PM ET
Click here for details.
PCORI Board of Governors Meeting
January 24, 2017, 12:00-1:30 PM ET
Click here for details.
Optimal Treatment Sequences for Nonspecific Chronic Low Back Pain Applicant LOI Town Hall - Cycle 1 2017
January 25, 2017, 11:00 AM -12:00 PM ET
Click here for details.
Dissemination and Implementation Applicant LOI Town Hall - Cycle 1 2017
January 25, 2017, 3:00-4:00 PM ET
Click here for details.
Pragmatic Clinical Studies Applicant LOI Town Hall - Cycle 1 2017
January 26, 2017, 2:30-4:00 PM ET
Click here for details.
2017 National Health Policy Conference
January 30 - 31, 2017, Marriott, Marquis, Washington D.C.
Click here for details.
National Value-Based Payment and Pay for Performance Summit
March 8, 2017, San Francisco, CA
Click here for details.
Evidence-Based Guidelines Affecting Policy, Practice and Stakeholders (E-GAPPS III) Conference
March 20-21, 2017, New York, NY
Click here for details.
9. Medical Journal Articles
Improving Outpatient Primary Medication Adherence with Physician Guided, Automated Dispensing, click here to view.
Association Between Adherence to Medications for COPD and Medications for Other Chronic Conditions in COPD Patients, click here to view.
Commentary: Precision Benefit Design—Using "Smarter" Deductibles to Better Engage Consumers and Mitigate Cost-Related Nonadherence, click here to view.
Levers for Addressing Medical Underuse and Overuse: Achieving High-Value Health Care, click here to view.
From Universal Health Coverage to Right Care for Health, click here to view.
AMCP Partnership Forum: Enabling the Exchange of Clinical and Economic Information Pre-FDA Approval, click here to view.
ACOs Serving High Proportions Of Racial And Ethnic Minorities Lag In Quality Performance, click here to view.
Detecting Heterogeneous Treatment Effects to Guide Personalized Blood Pressure Treatment: A Modeling Study of Randomized Clinical Trials, click here to view.
An Evidence-Based Medicine Approach to Antihyperglycemic Therapy in Diabetes Mellitus to Overcome Overtreatment, click here to view.
Perspective: Patient-Reported Outcomes — Harnessing Patients' Voices to Improve Clinical Care, click here to view.
10. AHRQ Effective Program Updates
Prioritization and Selection of Harms for Inclusion in Systematic Reviews, click here to view.
Assessing the Risk of Bias of Individual Studies in Systematic Reviews of Health Care Interventions: An Update, click here to view.
In a new article published in Huffington Post, PIPC Chairman Tony Coelho discusses the importance of recognizing “value” to the patient in the health reform debate. “While I may not concur with everything coming out of the new administration on health care, I agree broadly with the need for policymakers to get out of the ivory towers. Policymakers need to listen to real patients and embrace health care solutions that matter to patients, caregivers and people with disabilities. And frankly, in this drive to value-based health care, it hasn’t always been about us. It’s often about what is most cost effective for the ‘average patient’ and what is most cost effective for the payer. But I am not average. You are not average. We are the reason a health care system exists - our health and well-being, our treatment, our recovery… This administration can build bridges to the community of patients and people with disabilities by demonstrating they do not want a one-size-fits-all system of health care defined by people in lab coats. If this administration truly wants to get input from outside the establishment, then they should be looking to patients for insight as to how to improve the health care system.” Click here to view the article.
2. PCORI Names Kristin Carman as Director of Public and Patient Engagement
According to a recent press release, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) has named Kristin Carman, MA, PhD, as its new Director of Public and Patient Engagement. According to the press release, “In this position, she will be responsible for leading and directing PCORI’s overall efforts to see that patients and other healthcare stakeholders are fully involved in and guide all aspects of PCORI’s work. Carman joins PCORI from the American Institutes for Research, where she served as Vice President and Director of the Center for Patient and Consumer Engagement, and a Co-Director of the Health Policy and Research Group, a team of more than 70 health-services research professionals. In that role, she helped conduct research on issues of public importance in healthcare quality, access, and financing; comparative effectiveness; patient and family engagement; health systems improvement; public deliberation; and health-related communications. She also led groundbreaking engagement projects funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).” Click here to view the press release.
3. GAO Announces Nomination Opportunity for Openings on MedPAC
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has announced it is now accepting letters of nomination to serve on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). Established by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, MedPAC is a nonpartisan legislative branch agency that provides Congress with policy advice on the Medicare program. GAO is now accepting nominations for MedPAC appointments that will be effective May 1, 2017. Letters of nomination and resumes should be submitted no later than March 10, 2017 to [email protected].
4. CMS Announces Continued Interest in Alternative Pay Models for 2017
Last Wednesday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a report stating they expect 359,000 clinicians to sign up to participate in Alternative Payment Models (APMs) in 2017, which would serve more than 12.3 million Medicare or Medicaid beneficiaries. By the end of 2018, the agency estimated that 25 percent of clinicians in MACRA’s Quality Payment Program will participate in APMs. Those APMs include the Medicare Shared Savings Program, the Next Generation ACO Model, the Comprehensive End-Stage Renal Disease Care Model, and the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus Model. The agency touts the numbers as evidence of success in shifting away from fee-for-service and into value-based care, and sees the models as a way to improve the quality of services to beneficiaries while lowering costs.
Two of those models – the Comprehensive End-Stage Renal Disease Care Model and the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus Model – are currently being tested by the CMS Innovation Center (CMMI). The future of the CMMI and the pilot programs it creates are in Republicans' crosshairs. Opponents say the center oversteps its authority when it mandates participation in a program, and the healthcare industry has pushed back at times, saying the agency is moving too quickly for the industry to keep up. Click here to view the press release.
5. What's the Future of Value-Based Programs Under President-Elect Donald Trump?
An article published last week in MedCity News comments on the future of value-based programs under President Trump. As the author explains, “One example among many [is] section 3021 of the ACA established the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation...The CMMI hasn't been sitting still. The center has been busy developing a number of innovative programs that will affect healthcare for years to come, including bundled payment models, new ACO models, and the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) program. Many of these programs have already affected our professions, and many more will have a lasting effect on the future of healthcare.” Click here to view the article.
6. Video: Dr Joseph Alvarnas on Importance of Patient Voice in Value-Based Cancer Care
In a video published in the American Journal of Managed Care, Dr. Joseph Alvarnas of the City of Hope and editor-in-chief of Evidence-Based Oncology discusses the importance of the patient voice in value-based cancer care. “The transformation to value-based oncology care must be centered upon the priorities and needs of patients and their families,” Dr. Alvarnas said. “This vision is starting to be incorporated in areas like the Oncology Care Model, which looks at patient-reported outcomes and experiences.” Click here to view the video.
7. The PCORI Blog: The Importance of the Patient Voice
Patient Family Advisor Alexis Synder emphasizes the importance of including the patient voice in healthcare in a recent PCORI blog post. Providing anecdotes drawn from her personal life, Alexis shares her experiences in the healthcare system when she noticed that there was a need to include patients and families in the healthcare decision making and recovery process. In doing so, she highlights the importance of PCORI. “The patient voice is so critical,” she writes. “Providers and healthcare systems can best help patients in their times of need when patients, as well as their caregivers, are fully included in decision making. This is where the work being done by PCORI is so critically important. PCORI recognizes that it takes the whole community.” Click here to view the blog post.
8. Upcoming Events and Webinars
Getting to Know PCORI: From Application to Closeout (January 2017)
January 23 - 24, 2017, Washington Marriott Georgetown
Click here for details.
PCORI Online Training
January 24, 2017, 1:00-2:30 PM ET
Click here for details.
PCORI Board of Governors Meeting
January 24, 2017, 12:00-1:30 PM ET
Click here for details.
Optimal Treatment Sequences for Nonspecific Chronic Low Back Pain Applicant LOI Town Hall - Cycle 1 2017
January 25, 2017, 11:00 AM -12:00 PM ET
Click here for details.
Dissemination and Implementation Applicant LOI Town Hall - Cycle 1 2017
January 25, 2017, 3:00-4:00 PM ET
Click here for details.
Pragmatic Clinical Studies Applicant LOI Town Hall - Cycle 1 2017
January 26, 2017, 2:30-4:00 PM ET
Click here for details.
2017 National Health Policy Conference
January 30 - 31, 2017, Marriott, Marquis, Washington D.C.
Click here for details.
National Value-Based Payment and Pay for Performance Summit
March 8, 2017, San Francisco, CA
Click here for details.
Evidence-Based Guidelines Affecting Policy, Practice and Stakeholders (E-GAPPS III) Conference
March 20-21, 2017, New York, NY
Click here for details.
9. Medical Journal Articles
Improving Outpatient Primary Medication Adherence with Physician Guided, Automated Dispensing, click here to view.
Association Between Adherence to Medications for COPD and Medications for Other Chronic Conditions in COPD Patients, click here to view.
Commentary: Precision Benefit Design—Using "Smarter" Deductibles to Better Engage Consumers and Mitigate Cost-Related Nonadherence, click here to view.
Levers for Addressing Medical Underuse and Overuse: Achieving High-Value Health Care, click here to view.
From Universal Health Coverage to Right Care for Health, click here to view.
AMCP Partnership Forum: Enabling the Exchange of Clinical and Economic Information Pre-FDA Approval, click here to view.
ACOs Serving High Proportions Of Racial And Ethnic Minorities Lag In Quality Performance, click here to view.
Detecting Heterogeneous Treatment Effects to Guide Personalized Blood Pressure Treatment: A Modeling Study of Randomized Clinical Trials, click here to view.
An Evidence-Based Medicine Approach to Antihyperglycemic Therapy in Diabetes Mellitus to Overcome Overtreatment, click here to view.
Perspective: Patient-Reported Outcomes — Harnessing Patients' Voices to Improve Clinical Care, click here to view.
10. AHRQ Effective Program Updates
Prioritization and Selection of Harms for Inclusion in Systematic Reviews, click here to view.
Assessing the Risk of Bias of Individual Studies in Systematic Reviews of Health Care Interventions: An Update, click here to view.
