In This Week’s Issue:
1. PIPC Executive Director to Present on Oct. 26 to LAN Participants on Patient-Centeredness, click here to register for the event.
2. LAN Webinar: Payment Models Focused on Low-Income and Vulnerable Populations, click here to register for the webinar.
3. CMS Accepting Comments on MACRA, Alternative Payment Models, see details below
4. White Paper: Patient Engagement in the Development of New Treatments, click here to view the white paper
5. NASHP: Patient Perspective in State Health Policy Development, click here for details.
6. PCORI’s Selby: Finding Common Ground in the Search for Better Patient Care and Outcomes, click here to view the article.
7. PCORI Blogs on the Value of Patient and Family Engagement, click here and here to view the posts.
1. PIPC Executive Director to Present on Oct. 26 to LAN Participants on Patient-Centeredness, click here to register for the event.
2. LAN Webinar: Payment Models Focused on Low-Income and Vulnerable Populations, click here to register for the webinar.
3. CMS Accepting Comments on MACRA, Alternative Payment Models, see details below
4. White Paper: Patient Engagement in the Development of New Treatments, click here to view the white paper
5. NASHP: Patient Perspective in State Health Policy Development, click here for details.
6. PCORI’s Selby: Finding Common Ground in the Search for Better Patient Care and Outcomes, click here to view the article.
7. PCORI Blogs on the Value of Patient and Family Engagement, click here and here to view the posts.
1. PIPC Executive Director to Present on Oct. 26 to LAN Participants on Patient-Centeredness
The Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network (LAN) will hold a summit on Monday, October 26, in which PIPC Executive Director Sara van Geertruyden will present on a panel entitled Building a Patient-Centered Health System. This session will be moderated by LAN Guiding Committee Member, Alan Balch of Patient Advocate Foundation, and is scheduled to take place from 10:15 to 11:30 am. According to the LAN, “whether your organization is just beginning to explore APMs or has been running a high quality, high value payment model for years, this event will support you as you Engage, Learn, and Act!” Click here to register for the event.
2. LAN Webinar: Payment Models Focused on Low-Income and Vulnerable Populations
The Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network (LAN) will hold a webinar on October 15 from 12:30-1:45 PM ET to provide “updates on LAN activities and hear about an innovative payment reform approach focused on low income and vulnerable populations in New Jersey. Since the last webinar, the LAN Guiding Committee is working to launch new work groups, stand up affinity groups, partner with the Core Quality Measures Collaborative on performance measures, and prepare for the first LAN Summit in Arlington, Virginia. The Guiding Committee will also hold its second in-person meeting on September 30/October 1, to continue advancing LAN goals. LAN Guiding Committee Co-Chair Mark McClellan will share updates on these activities during this webinar. In the second part of the webinar you will hear from panelists discussing the Medicaid payment reform initiative occurring in New Jersey. This model promotes accessible, coordinated, patient-centered care that focuses on health and disease prevention and reduces health care costs. Invited speakers represent Rutgers University, Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers, UnitedHealthcare, and the New Jersey Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services to share how New Jersey has implemented this model, how the it is working, what lessons have been learned so far, and plans for evaluation and performance feedback to Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs).” Click here to register for the webinar.
To join the LAN and receive updates about activities, including opportunities for input and participation, click here.
3. CMS Accepting Comments on MACRA, Alternative Payment Models
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released a Request for Information on the physician payment reform provisions within the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). The April 2015 law repeals the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula, replaces it with a multi-year phase-in of new physician incentives and updates and requires that CMS consult with stakeholders on implementation. CMS notes that feedback on this RFI as well as the proposed calendar year 2016 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule rule will inform its eventual proposed policies. Comments are due by November 2. CMS officials describe the statutory basis for MACRA reforms in a Health Affairs blog post here. The agency will also be holding a webinar on October 15 from 2-3 pm ET to discuss the webinar, the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), and Alternative Payment Models (APMs)
4. White Paper: Patient Engagement in the Development of New Treatments
The National Health Council and the Genetic Alliance released a joint white paper on Advancing Meaningful Patient Engagement in Research, Development, and Review of Drugs. "All stakeholders – the patient community, researchers, regulatory agencies, and industry – are identified as having important roles at different stages in moving patient engagement forward. For example, the white paper addresses:
The need to create regulatory guardrails and enhance FDA division alignment on the use of tools for evaluating patient information; The importance of promoting a culture shift to generate buy-in for patient engagement, creating accountability for collecting and integrating patient perspectives, and educating researchers; and The tactics for facilitating opening communication, including creating a feedback system to inform patients about how their contributions impact decisions and making patient engagement successes and best practices both comprehensible and publicly available.The resulting report discusses key themes from the Dialogue, which are intended to represent an initial conversation among stakeholders and a vision for advancing patient engagement.” Click here to view the white paper, here to watch a recorded webinar discussing patient engagement, and here to download the presentation slides.
5. NASHP: Patient Perspective in State Health Policy Development
With support from PCORI, the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) has announced an opportunity for three states to develop or enhance processes for evidence-based health policymaking. The three state teams selected must also include a patient partner or representation from a patient organization. “This project will convene multi-agency teams from three states to work towards achieving three primary goals: (1) increase the use of evidence, including PCOR and CER, within state health policy decision making; (2) establish a structure for inter-agency collaboration on the use of this research; and (3) develop a strategy for the meaningful engagement of the patient in program and policy development within various state agencies.” Click here for details.
6. PCORI’s Selby: Finding Common Ground in the Search for Better Patient Care and Outcomes
In a recent post on The Health Care Blog, PCORI Executive Director Joe Selby, MD comments, “We know patients, their families, and clinicians often make choices about care options with little reliable evidence as to which one might work best based on their particular situation and concerns. So we seek to fund studies that can provide useful and reliable evidence about how well different care approaches work, for whom, and under which circumstances. By ensuring that patients and those who care for them play a central role throughout the research process—beginning with the choice of topics and questions to be studied– we believe it's more likely the results will be useful and taken up in practice.” Click here to view the article.
7. PCORI Blogs on the Value of Patient and Family Engagement
To mark their fifth anniversary, The PCORI Blog asked patients, caregivers, clinicians, and researchers to describe their experiences with engagement of healthcare stakeholders in research and share their thoughts about building a patient-centered clinical effectiveness research community. In one post, Amy L. Kratchman, Family Consultant and LEND Family Collaboration Director, comments “I feel PCORI has really changed things: starting the conversation, laying out best practices, and changing the culture of how researchers work—not isolated in silos, but with patients and families. And the word is spreading. I'm now on a patient engagement advisory panel with representatives from government agencies that are looking at using patients and family members in research. The stage has been set. More and more people are realizing the benefits of patient and family engagement, and the only way to move is forward.” Click here to view the post.
In another post, Steven H. Woolf, MD, MPH, Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Center on Society and Health, comments, “we've learned that the typical orientation of the academic research community is backwards. We're accustomed to asking how we can get patients and the community engaged in our research. The question should be: how can the research community get involved in what patients and communities are doing to improve their health?...Engaging patients as equal partners creates a respectful, trusting relationship that improves the quality of research.” Click here to view the post.
The Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network (LAN) will hold a summit on Monday, October 26, in which PIPC Executive Director Sara van Geertruyden will present on a panel entitled Building a Patient-Centered Health System. This session will be moderated by LAN Guiding Committee Member, Alan Balch of Patient Advocate Foundation, and is scheduled to take place from 10:15 to 11:30 am. According to the LAN, “whether your organization is just beginning to explore APMs or has been running a high quality, high value payment model for years, this event will support you as you Engage, Learn, and Act!” Click here to register for the event.
2. LAN Webinar: Payment Models Focused on Low-Income and Vulnerable Populations
The Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network (LAN) will hold a webinar on October 15 from 12:30-1:45 PM ET to provide “updates on LAN activities and hear about an innovative payment reform approach focused on low income and vulnerable populations in New Jersey. Since the last webinar, the LAN Guiding Committee is working to launch new work groups, stand up affinity groups, partner with the Core Quality Measures Collaborative on performance measures, and prepare for the first LAN Summit in Arlington, Virginia. The Guiding Committee will also hold its second in-person meeting on September 30/October 1, to continue advancing LAN goals. LAN Guiding Committee Co-Chair Mark McClellan will share updates on these activities during this webinar. In the second part of the webinar you will hear from panelists discussing the Medicaid payment reform initiative occurring in New Jersey. This model promotes accessible, coordinated, patient-centered care that focuses on health and disease prevention and reduces health care costs. Invited speakers represent Rutgers University, Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers, UnitedHealthcare, and the New Jersey Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services to share how New Jersey has implemented this model, how the it is working, what lessons have been learned so far, and plans for evaluation and performance feedback to Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs).” Click here to register for the webinar.
To join the LAN and receive updates about activities, including opportunities for input and participation, click here.
3. CMS Accepting Comments on MACRA, Alternative Payment Models
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released a Request for Information on the physician payment reform provisions within the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). The April 2015 law repeals the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula, replaces it with a multi-year phase-in of new physician incentives and updates and requires that CMS consult with stakeholders on implementation. CMS notes that feedback on this RFI as well as the proposed calendar year 2016 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule rule will inform its eventual proposed policies. Comments are due by November 2. CMS officials describe the statutory basis for MACRA reforms in a Health Affairs blog post here. The agency will also be holding a webinar on October 15 from 2-3 pm ET to discuss the webinar, the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), and Alternative Payment Models (APMs)
4. White Paper: Patient Engagement in the Development of New Treatments
The National Health Council and the Genetic Alliance released a joint white paper on Advancing Meaningful Patient Engagement in Research, Development, and Review of Drugs. "All stakeholders – the patient community, researchers, regulatory agencies, and industry – are identified as having important roles at different stages in moving patient engagement forward. For example, the white paper addresses:
The need to create regulatory guardrails and enhance FDA division alignment on the use of tools for evaluating patient information; The importance of promoting a culture shift to generate buy-in for patient engagement, creating accountability for collecting and integrating patient perspectives, and educating researchers; and The tactics for facilitating opening communication, including creating a feedback system to inform patients about how their contributions impact decisions and making patient engagement successes and best practices both comprehensible and publicly available.The resulting report discusses key themes from the Dialogue, which are intended to represent an initial conversation among stakeholders and a vision for advancing patient engagement.” Click here to view the white paper, here to watch a recorded webinar discussing patient engagement, and here to download the presentation slides.
5. NASHP: Patient Perspective in State Health Policy Development
With support from PCORI, the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) has announced an opportunity for three states to develop or enhance processes for evidence-based health policymaking. The three state teams selected must also include a patient partner or representation from a patient organization. “This project will convene multi-agency teams from three states to work towards achieving three primary goals: (1) increase the use of evidence, including PCOR and CER, within state health policy decision making; (2) establish a structure for inter-agency collaboration on the use of this research; and (3) develop a strategy for the meaningful engagement of the patient in program and policy development within various state agencies.” Click here for details.
6. PCORI’s Selby: Finding Common Ground in the Search for Better Patient Care and Outcomes
In a recent post on The Health Care Blog, PCORI Executive Director Joe Selby, MD comments, “We know patients, their families, and clinicians often make choices about care options with little reliable evidence as to which one might work best based on their particular situation and concerns. So we seek to fund studies that can provide useful and reliable evidence about how well different care approaches work, for whom, and under which circumstances. By ensuring that patients and those who care for them play a central role throughout the research process—beginning with the choice of topics and questions to be studied– we believe it's more likely the results will be useful and taken up in practice.” Click here to view the article.
7. PCORI Blogs on the Value of Patient and Family Engagement
To mark their fifth anniversary, The PCORI Blog asked patients, caregivers, clinicians, and researchers to describe their experiences with engagement of healthcare stakeholders in research and share their thoughts about building a patient-centered clinical effectiveness research community. In one post, Amy L. Kratchman, Family Consultant and LEND Family Collaboration Director, comments “I feel PCORI has really changed things: starting the conversation, laying out best practices, and changing the culture of how researchers work—not isolated in silos, but with patients and families. And the word is spreading. I'm now on a patient engagement advisory panel with representatives from government agencies that are looking at using patients and family members in research. The stage has been set. More and more people are realizing the benefits of patient and family engagement, and the only way to move is forward.” Click here to view the post.
In another post, Steven H. Woolf, MD, MPH, Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Center on Society and Health, comments, “we've learned that the typical orientation of the academic research community is backwards. We're accustomed to asking how we can get patients and the community engaged in our research. The question should be: how can the research community get involved in what patients and communities are doing to improve their health?...Engaging patients as equal partners creates a respectful, trusting relationship that improves the quality of research.” Click here to view the post.