Roji Intel Blog

Theresa Hush 0
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COVID-19Future of Health CareRacial Inequities in Health CareWomen and Health Care
January 25, 2021

Why Health Equity Will Be Measured in Value-Based Health Care

After the first wave of COVID-19 case numbers and deaths in Spring 2020, it was Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago who broke the story of how the virus was distinctly ravaging Black and brown communities with higher hospitalizations and deaths. In Chicago, alone, Black residents were dying from COVID-19 at six times the rate of other Chicagoans. While the virus has been unsparing across the board, there is a tragic trifecta—people who are older, or of color, with serious underlying conditions, are dying in greater numbers, with a disproportionate percentage of deaths afflicting underrepresented groups. COVID-19 is not unique in…
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Theresa Hush 0
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ACOsFuture of Health CareMerit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)RiskValue-Based Health Care
December 9, 2020

7 New Value-Based Health Care Directions You’ll See in 2021

Everyone who's reeling from 2020 is hoping for light in 2021. Health care, especially—systems, hospitals, clinical practices and their providers—wants the pain to stop. What might lie ahead for health care next year? Here's what we're thinking about the near future, and what you should watch for in 2021. 1. Health care providers will be fortified. If one thing is clear from the election results, it's that relief is coming to help providers on the pandemic’s front line. Money won't be free-flowing, but it will be targeted to areas of financial distress. We should expect initiatives to centralize purchasing and…
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Dave Halpert 0
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COVID-19Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)Quality Payment ProgramValue-Based Health Care
August 5, 2020

“Push-Pull” for Providers in Medicare’s Proposed 2021 Rule for Physician Fees and Quality Reporting

The newly published 2021 CMS Physician Fee Schedule and Quality Payment Program (QPP) Proposed Rule reflects our harsh reality: Operate under the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic, while moving toward uniformity and Risk. That tension is palpable in the Proposed Rule’s "push-pull" of CMS trying to continue to advance a Value agenda while stuck in the mud of the pandemic. Rather than launching the next step of integrating CMS quality improvement activities, the Proposed Rule stays the current course for MIPS Quality Reporting to avoid additional stress on providers during the COVID-19 pandemic. But the Proposed Rule also continues to…
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Dave Halpert 0
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COVID-19Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)RiskValue-Based Health Care
June 26, 2020

The Fallacy of “Relief”: The Dangers of MIPS Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances Applications

Under the banner of “relief,” CMS has announced that clinicians will have the opportunity to file an Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances  application to qualify for re-weighting in some or all components of the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). This possibility may sound intriguing, but don’t be fooled—those who take this route are overlooking the longer-term consequences of maintaining and expanding MIPS efforts. MIPS Is Not Going Away The day before releasing 2020 MIPS flexibility guidance, CMS announced the creation of the Office of Burden and Health Informatics, which has grown out of the Patients Over Paperwork initiative. In this notice…
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Theresa Hush 0
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Consumers & PatientsCOVID-19Future of Health CarePopulation Health
June 11, 2020

Is Telehealth Bridging or Widening the Health Care Gap? We Need to Find Out.

ROJI Health Intelligence CEO Theresa Hush frames the questions we need to ask about the future of telehealth in this 3:37 minute video. Telehealth has become the go-to solution for health care during the COVID-19 pandemic, enabling providers and consumers to remain in contact for routine and non-emergency visits while brick-and-mortar spaces have been closed. Now that health care is reopening, however, telehealth remains a preferred communications medium, and many providers plan to expand it much more going forward. So, it’s time to ask: Are the services we are offering through telehealth really delivering the best health care possible? And,…
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Dave Halpert 0
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ACO ReportingCOVID-19RiskValue-Based Health Care
May 6, 2020

The Interim ACO Rule Explained: A Pause, Not a Reprieve

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to upend health care in the U.S., pressure has mounted on CMS to adjust its efforts to drive providers to adopt risk. In response, at the end of last week CMS announced a carve-out of COVID-19 patient expenses from certain reporting requirements. In this round, ACOs were on the receiving end, being largely excused from remaining 2019 reporting and 2020 enrollment obligations. True to our predictions, this will slow, but not reverse CMS’s ultimate agenda to push providers to manage under risk. Those who interpret the Interim Rule as a reprieve will do so at…
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Theresa Hush 0
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COVID-19
April 8, 2020

Best Online Resources for Understanding and Responding to COVID-19

As Roji Health Intelligence focuses on how our business can support the heroic efforts of health care providers in the front lines of the pandemic, I’m spending hours researching and reading the best science and public health information about COVID-19. Here are resources that I’ve found to be indispensable, as well as significant research to date, and some other articles and videos worth your time. I hope you find these useful as we all work to flatten the curve and plan for the long-term health effects of this insidious virus. Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering: 
Map…
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Theresa Hush 0
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COVID-19Population HealthSpecialized Registry
March 27, 2020

Roji Health Intelligence Launches Population Health Registry for Patients at High Risk for Severe COVID-19

To assist the health care provider community’s heroic efforts to combat COVID-19, Roji Health Intelligence has launched a new Population Health Registry for Patients at High Risk for Severe COVID-19. Our goal is to help providers track, monitor, and communicate with patients whose underlying health conditions will make them more vulnerable to the virus, particularly as resources are reallocated away from routine medicine to meet the exceptional demands of the pandemic. The program is being offered to current Roji Health Intelligence clients at no additional charge. To learn more, please contact us at info@44.195.166.74. Founded in 2002, Roji Health Intelligence…
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