In This Week’s Issue:
1. PIPC Releases Roundtable Recommendations for Engaging and Empowering Patients, click here to view the press release.
2. KevinMD: Why Guidelines Should Only Be a Framework. They Should Not Be Rules, click here to view the article.
3. PCORI Blog: An Application's Journey from Merit Review to Project Funding, click here to view the blog post.
4. Health Affairs Blog: Promoting Transparency And Clear Choices In Health Care, click here to view the blog post.
5. PCORI Blog: Research to Improve Children's Health, click here to view the blog post.
6. New York Times: The Evidence Points to a Better Way to Fight Insomnia, click here to view the article.
7. AJMC: Meaningfully Engaging Patients in ACO Decision Making, click here to view the blog
1. PIPC Releases Roundtable Recommendations for Engaging and Empowering Patients, click here to view the press release.
2. KevinMD: Why Guidelines Should Only Be a Framework. They Should Not Be Rules, click here to view the article.
3. PCORI Blog: An Application's Journey from Merit Review to Project Funding, click here to view the blog post.
4. Health Affairs Blog: Promoting Transparency And Clear Choices In Health Care, click here to view the blog post.
5. PCORI Blog: Research to Improve Children's Health, click here to view the blog post.
6. New York Times: The Evidence Points to a Better Way to Fight Insomnia, click here to view the article.
7. AJMC: Meaningfully Engaging Patients in ACO Decision Making, click here to view the blog
1. PIPC Releases Roundtable Recommendations for Engaging and Empowering Patients
Today, the Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC) today released a detailed summary and recommendations from an expert roundtable convened on April 15 of this year to explore strategies for engaging and empowering patients in care delivery. Convened by PIPC Chairman Tony Coelho, the roundtable consisted of 17 thought-leaders in the area of patient engagement and activation, all of whom shared their concerns about the existing health care infrastructure for meaningful patient and beneficiary engagement, and provided ideas for improvement.
According to PIPC Chairman Tony Coelho, “Great things can happen when you get a group of such talented and passionate individuals together in one place.” He continued, “We have a great opportunity in front of us to spur patient-centeredness and patient engagement via ‘value-based’ care, but to achieve this we need to pay for the care that patients value.”
“By acting on these recommendations, policymakers will more effectively drive organizations to change their behavior and culture related to engagement, similar to the change in culture for research being advanced by PCORI. These recommendations make clear that there are opportunities to advance patient engagement both in the processes by which new payment models are developed for public programs, and the form that they take.”
According to Roundtable participant Marc Boutin, CEO, National Health Council, “We should take advantage of the momentum for patient engagement in our public health programs while it is a focus of policymakers. These recommendations give a clear pathway to ensure that health care policy decisions consider the ‘Patient Trifecta’ including the patient’s experiential journey, their life aspirations and goals, and their clinical outcomes.”
“Whether they are challenged by mental illness, cancer or any other health condition, all patients benefit from a system that empowers them to participate in shared decision- making,” said Andrew Sperling, Director of Legislative Advocacy, National Association on Mental Illness (NAMI). “Our government policies should be working better to drive that patient participation.”
“I am proud to have been a part of this important exercise,” stated Cynthia Bens, Vice President, Public Policy, Alliance for Aging Research, “and I hope it leads to the implementation of real policies by government and non-government actors to encourage and embrace the patient voice in decision making.”
The panel recommended specific approaches for policymakers to take actions, including steps to:
Increase readiness among patients, beneficiaries and communities to engage.Measure outcomes that matter to patients.Provide transparency to the patient about the policies and incentives that drive their treatment choices.Create a coordinating council of HHS agencies to share their experience with patient and beneficiary engagement. Increase accountability for beneficiary engagement in accountable care organizations and other alternative payment models.
Click here to view the full press release.
2. KevinMD: Why Guidelines Should Only Be a Framework. They Should Not Be Rules.
In an article from KevinMD.com, Robert Centor, MD, explains that “some interventions are dramatic with minimal side effects. Other interventions modify the course of disease in less dramatic fashion and have greater side effects… Are the benefits worth the risks? To make these decisions we have to implicitly assign values to the benefits and to the risks. Those values are and must be subjective. Those values are patient specific. For us to declare that everyone should receive a certain treatment implies that we can assign values for everyone... [T]oo often our guidelines should not be rules. They are often not patient oriented. We cannot explain these observations otherwise. The guideline movement is out of control...We need shorter, more focused guidelines. We need the honesty to provide the probability of benefits and risks. Guidelines should help us frame medical decisions for our patients. Guidelines should give us a framework. Guidelines are not, and should not be, rules.” Click here to view the article.
3. PCORI Blog: An Application's Journey from Merit Review to Project Funding
A recent post on The PCORI Blog discusses how PCORI selects applications for funding using their “rigorous merit review process, which includes input from scientists, patients, and other healthcare stakeholders.” James Hulbert, Diane E. Bild, MD, MPH, Scott J. Yoo, JD and Kara Odom Walker, MD, MPH, MSHS, comments “We receive many questions about how PCORI selects applications for funding. We have documented our rigorous merit review process, … But applicants often want to know what happens next. How, they ask, do we make final selections among the applications? How do we let them know if they've been funded? Why do we announce awards during a public forum? So to address those and other questions we expect many of you have, we'd like to describe how an application travels from merit review to project funding.” Click here to view the blog post.
4. Health Affairs Blog: Promoting Transparency And Clear Choices In Health Care
With the “vigorous demand for transparency in health care”, Joel White, in a Health Affairs Blog, states that health spending as a share of GDP will grow more rapidly over the next ten years than it did in either of the preceding two decades. He comments “...Information should be accurate, meaningful, and usable to help consumers and employers make better decisions about their health care providers, including price, quality, safety, and outcomes. Rather than just dumping data on consumers, Congress and the Administration should require and use measures that meet these criteria.” He poses an agenda of
“Better tools for consumers and employers to make informed decisions“More data in the hands of more experts to power consumer tools.“More competitive markets where consumers can use comparative tools.“More data in the hands of more experts to power consumer tools.
“Transparency—on price, quality, safety, and coverage options—can help reduce health costs and improve outcomes by empowering consumers to make better choices. Unfortunately, current federal and state efforts are not effectively leveraging the latest technology and available data to achieve these goals. We believe our agenda will rectify this — and vastly improve health care in America.” Click here to view the blog post.
5. PCORI Blog: Research to Improve Children's Health
In The PCORI Blog’s recent post, Kelly Dunham, MPP, Kimberly Bailey, MS and Bryan Luce, PhD, MS, MBA noted that a”proximately 74 million Americans, or 24 percent of the population, is under the age of 18, and the complexity of pediatric care is growing rapidly. In the United States, about 20 percent of children have at least one chronic condition, such as obesity, diabetes, asthma, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or autism spectrum disorder... At PCORI, we have funded more than $180 million in CER focused on improving child health and care delivery. Children are also an important focus in the development of PCORI's PCORnet, the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network, which aims to transform clinical research by promoting collaborative partnerships to improve healthcare and advance medical knowledge. PCORnet includes the National Pediatric Learning Health System Clinical Data Research Network (PEDSnet), and five patient-led networks that focus on child health.” Click here to view the blog post.
6. New York Times: The Evidence Points to a Better Way to Fight Insomnia
According to a recent article in The New York Times, “… Insomnia is common. About 30 percent of adults report some symptoms of it, though less than half that figure have all symptoms… Insomnia is worth curing. Though causality is hard to assess, chronic insomnia is associated with greater risk of anxiety, depression,hypertension, diabetes, accidents and pain. Not surprisingly, and my own experience notwithstanding, it is also associated with lower productivity at work. Patients who are successfully treated experience improved mood, and they feel healthier, function better and have fewer symptoms of depression. Frakt, continues “...Which remedy would be best for me? Lunesta, Ambien, Restoril and other drugs are promised by a barrage of ads to deliver sleep to minds that resist it...Specifically, for evidence-based guidance, I turned to comparative effectiveness research. That's the study of the effects of one therapy against another therapy. This kind of head-to-head evaluation offers ideal data to help patients and clinicians make informed treatment decisions.” Click here to view the article.
7. AJMC: Meaningfully Engaging Patients in ACO Decision Making
Matthew DeCamp, MD, PhD; Jeremy Sugarman, MD, MPH, MA; and Scott Adam Berkowitz, MD, MBA, describe a 3-step framework for how accountable care organizations (ACOs) can ensure that patients’ needs, values, and preferences are incorporated into ACO governance decisions in a recent article featured in The American Journal of Managed Care. The authors explain “...Engaging patients in their individual care interactions is crucial for empowering patients to achieve better health in ways that are consistent with their values; here, ACOs are no exception...However, despite a regulatory requirement for involving patients in the governance of Medicare ACOs, what constitutes effective engagement in this regard has received relatively little attention. We describe how ACOs can achieve meaningful system-level patient engagement.” Click here to view the blog.
Today, the Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC) today released a detailed summary and recommendations from an expert roundtable convened on April 15 of this year to explore strategies for engaging and empowering patients in care delivery. Convened by PIPC Chairman Tony Coelho, the roundtable consisted of 17 thought-leaders in the area of patient engagement and activation, all of whom shared their concerns about the existing health care infrastructure for meaningful patient and beneficiary engagement, and provided ideas for improvement.
According to PIPC Chairman Tony Coelho, “Great things can happen when you get a group of such talented and passionate individuals together in one place.” He continued, “We have a great opportunity in front of us to spur patient-centeredness and patient engagement via ‘value-based’ care, but to achieve this we need to pay for the care that patients value.”
“By acting on these recommendations, policymakers will more effectively drive organizations to change their behavior and culture related to engagement, similar to the change in culture for research being advanced by PCORI. These recommendations make clear that there are opportunities to advance patient engagement both in the processes by which new payment models are developed for public programs, and the form that they take.”
According to Roundtable participant Marc Boutin, CEO, National Health Council, “We should take advantage of the momentum for patient engagement in our public health programs while it is a focus of policymakers. These recommendations give a clear pathway to ensure that health care policy decisions consider the ‘Patient Trifecta’ including the patient’s experiential journey, their life aspirations and goals, and their clinical outcomes.”
“Whether they are challenged by mental illness, cancer or any other health condition, all patients benefit from a system that empowers them to participate in shared decision- making,” said Andrew Sperling, Director of Legislative Advocacy, National Association on Mental Illness (NAMI). “Our government policies should be working better to drive that patient participation.”
“I am proud to have been a part of this important exercise,” stated Cynthia Bens, Vice President, Public Policy, Alliance for Aging Research, “and I hope it leads to the implementation of real policies by government and non-government actors to encourage and embrace the patient voice in decision making.”
The panel recommended specific approaches for policymakers to take actions, including steps to:
Increase readiness among patients, beneficiaries and communities to engage.Measure outcomes that matter to patients.Provide transparency to the patient about the policies and incentives that drive their treatment choices.Create a coordinating council of HHS agencies to share their experience with patient and beneficiary engagement. Increase accountability for beneficiary engagement in accountable care organizations and other alternative payment models.
Click here to view the full press release.
2. KevinMD: Why Guidelines Should Only Be a Framework. They Should Not Be Rules.
In an article from KevinMD.com, Robert Centor, MD, explains that “some interventions are dramatic with minimal side effects. Other interventions modify the course of disease in less dramatic fashion and have greater side effects… Are the benefits worth the risks? To make these decisions we have to implicitly assign values to the benefits and to the risks. Those values are and must be subjective. Those values are patient specific. For us to declare that everyone should receive a certain treatment implies that we can assign values for everyone... [T]oo often our guidelines should not be rules. They are often not patient oriented. We cannot explain these observations otherwise. The guideline movement is out of control...We need shorter, more focused guidelines. We need the honesty to provide the probability of benefits and risks. Guidelines should help us frame medical decisions for our patients. Guidelines should give us a framework. Guidelines are not, and should not be, rules.” Click here to view the article.
3. PCORI Blog: An Application's Journey from Merit Review to Project Funding
A recent post on The PCORI Blog discusses how PCORI selects applications for funding using their “rigorous merit review process, which includes input from scientists, patients, and other healthcare stakeholders.” James Hulbert, Diane E. Bild, MD, MPH, Scott J. Yoo, JD and Kara Odom Walker, MD, MPH, MSHS, comments “We receive many questions about how PCORI selects applications for funding. We have documented our rigorous merit review process, … But applicants often want to know what happens next. How, they ask, do we make final selections among the applications? How do we let them know if they've been funded? Why do we announce awards during a public forum? So to address those and other questions we expect many of you have, we'd like to describe how an application travels from merit review to project funding.” Click here to view the blog post.
4. Health Affairs Blog: Promoting Transparency And Clear Choices In Health Care
With the “vigorous demand for transparency in health care”, Joel White, in a Health Affairs Blog, states that health spending as a share of GDP will grow more rapidly over the next ten years than it did in either of the preceding two decades. He comments “...Information should be accurate, meaningful, and usable to help consumers and employers make better decisions about their health care providers, including price, quality, safety, and outcomes. Rather than just dumping data on consumers, Congress and the Administration should require and use measures that meet these criteria.” He poses an agenda of
“Better tools for consumers and employers to make informed decisions“More data in the hands of more experts to power consumer tools.“More competitive markets where consumers can use comparative tools.“More data in the hands of more experts to power consumer tools.
“Transparency—on price, quality, safety, and coverage options—can help reduce health costs and improve outcomes by empowering consumers to make better choices. Unfortunately, current federal and state efforts are not effectively leveraging the latest technology and available data to achieve these goals. We believe our agenda will rectify this — and vastly improve health care in America.” Click here to view the blog post.
5. PCORI Blog: Research to Improve Children's Health
In The PCORI Blog’s recent post, Kelly Dunham, MPP, Kimberly Bailey, MS and Bryan Luce, PhD, MS, MBA noted that a”proximately 74 million Americans, or 24 percent of the population, is under the age of 18, and the complexity of pediatric care is growing rapidly. In the United States, about 20 percent of children have at least one chronic condition, such as obesity, diabetes, asthma, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or autism spectrum disorder... At PCORI, we have funded more than $180 million in CER focused on improving child health and care delivery. Children are also an important focus in the development of PCORI's PCORnet, the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network, which aims to transform clinical research by promoting collaborative partnerships to improve healthcare and advance medical knowledge. PCORnet includes the National Pediatric Learning Health System Clinical Data Research Network (PEDSnet), and five patient-led networks that focus on child health.” Click here to view the blog post.
6. New York Times: The Evidence Points to a Better Way to Fight Insomnia
According to a recent article in The New York Times, “… Insomnia is common. About 30 percent of adults report some symptoms of it, though less than half that figure have all symptoms… Insomnia is worth curing. Though causality is hard to assess, chronic insomnia is associated with greater risk of anxiety, depression,hypertension, diabetes, accidents and pain. Not surprisingly, and my own experience notwithstanding, it is also associated with lower productivity at work. Patients who are successfully treated experience improved mood, and they feel healthier, function better and have fewer symptoms of depression. Frakt, continues “...Which remedy would be best for me? Lunesta, Ambien, Restoril and other drugs are promised by a barrage of ads to deliver sleep to minds that resist it...Specifically, for evidence-based guidance, I turned to comparative effectiveness research. That's the study of the effects of one therapy against another therapy. This kind of head-to-head evaluation offers ideal data to help patients and clinicians make informed treatment decisions.” Click here to view the article.
7. AJMC: Meaningfully Engaging Patients in ACO Decision Making
Matthew DeCamp, MD, PhD; Jeremy Sugarman, MD, MPH, MA; and Scott Adam Berkowitz, MD, MBA, describe a 3-step framework for how accountable care organizations (ACOs) can ensure that patients’ needs, values, and preferences are incorporated into ACO governance decisions in a recent article featured in The American Journal of Managed Care. The authors explain “...Engaging patients in their individual care interactions is crucial for empowering patients to achieve better health in ways that are consistent with their values; here, ACOs are no exception...However, despite a regulatory requirement for involving patients in the governance of Medicare ACOs, what constitutes effective engagement in this regard has received relatively little attention. We describe how ACOs can achieve meaningful system-level patient engagement.” Click here to view the blog.
