Care Transformation Center Blog
The insights, tools, and resources you need to take on population health management
by Lauren Lawton and Tara Viviani October 9, 2019
Editor's note: A version of this post previously ran on The Growth Channel blog.
Up to 10% of newborns require breathing assistance or extensive resuscitation. While neonatal providers attend biannual resuscitation trainings, skill deterioration is common within months of the course, especially for those who rarely use resuscitation.
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by Carolyn Buys and Monica Westhead October 2, 2019
The number of patients with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia is expected to grow from 5.8 million to 14 million by the year 2050, costing the U.S. health system nearly $800 billion. These patients have twice as many hospital stays as other older adults, and present unique clinical challenges to providers, such as frequent wandering and ED utilization.
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by Clare Wirth and Tomi Ogundimu September 25, 2019
Despite the increasing demand for behavioral health treatment in primary care and the ED, many providers are ill-equipped. In fact, 60% of visits resulting in a mental health diagnosis are made to a primary care provider (PCP). However, behavioral health is only one of the many issues PCPs treat and their assessment and treatments are inconsistent. And one in eight ED visits is related to a mental health or substance misuse issue. However, only 17% of ED physicians say they have access to an on-call mental health professional.
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by Rachel Zuckerman, Vidal Seegobin, and Darby Sullivan September 18, 2019
Editor's note: This is part of a series about care transformation around the globe, where we look at successful population health managers outside the United States. A version of this post previously ran on the The Forum blog.
Patients experiencing homelessness are more likely to struggle with physical trauma, unmanaged chronic conditions, and behavioral health emergencies. They are also less likely to access adequate care. These factors can reduce a patient's life expectancy by up to 36 years. When patients experiencing homelessness are in crisis, safety-net organizations are tasked with meeting their complex needs.
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by Abby Burns, Andrew McGrath, and Tomi Ogundimu September 11, 2019
Of all the questions care transformation leaders have asked our Population Health Advisor team so far in 2019, one topic is consistently top-of-mind: behavioral health. While questions about how best to manage population behavioral health needs aren't new, the questions we receive are growing in both volume and nuance.
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by Abby Burns and Tomi Ogundimu September 4, 2019
Medicare "fee-for-value" codes present an opportunity for providers still reimbursed under fee-for-service to fund investments in value-based care. However, these codes (e.g., TCM, CCM, ACP, BHI, AWV) are still heavily underutilized. A 2018 analysis found that despite demonstrating significant impacts on total cost of care and mortality, providers billed TCM in only 7% of eligible cases in 2015 (up from 3.1% in 2013). Similarly, a 2017 analysis found that only 4.5% of eligible providers billed CCM in the first 15 months of availability. And research published in JAMA Internal Medicine earlier this year found that use of ACP codes is less than 3%.
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Tomi Ogundimu August 20, 2019
Health systems are increasingly investing in interventions to address social determinants—and transportation is often at the top of the list. The Altarum Institute estimates 3.6 million Americans miss or delay medical appointments each year due to a lack of transportation, and many more rely on medical transport with long-wait times and high rates of driver no-shows. Therefore, many provider organizations (and health plans) have begun to partner with popular rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft, aiming to get patients to their appointments more easily (and at lower cost than traditional NEMT services).
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by Darby Sullivan and Tomi Ogundimu August 14, 2019
The United States is the only industrialized nation where the maternal mortality rate is increasing. Black and Native patients are four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications compared to white patients. Transgender men report discrimination and insufficient care when pregnant. And 60% of these deaths are preventable. Researchers directly attribute these worsening trends to a few factors—insufficient access to care, miseducation on the warning signs of complications, and missed or delayed diagnoses.
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