Industry News

esearch shows that patient navigation is an effective service designed to help manage the complexities of a serious illness like a cancer diagnosis or a chronic disease.¹ While advancements in cancer therapy improve patient survival, they also heighten the risk of overlooking important steps in the treatment process. Underserved populations with limited resources are placed at greater risk for poor outcomes. Due to the complexities of navigating cancer treatments, patients can experience care delays or missed opportunities, such as clinical trials and complementary and alternative medicine services,² which can help with symptom management in cancer care. Addressing these difficulties makes the role of a navigator vital to improved outcomes, patient access, and patient satisfaction.

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Medicare has started to pay for navigation for guiding patients through the maze of health care services in settings where treatment involves multiple specialties.

Under the Biden Administration’s Cancer Moonshot initiative, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has created four CPT codes that will allow health care providers to bill for services known collectively as “patient navigation.”

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This time of the year is one for both reflection and anticipation. As our profession looks back on the issuance of the first Quality Payment Program (QPP) final rule a year ago and celebrates our collective progress toward adoption of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), so too must we look ahead to the program’s future.

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As the Quality Payment Program enters its second year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued its 1,653-page final rule on Nov. 2, with an array of implications for the ways physician practices use information technology in 2018.

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FDA has issued final guidance to authorized medical device manufacturers, clarifying that it is acceptable for those manufacturers to open patient access to health data for those patients who request access.

The guidance states that medical device manufacturers are not prohibited from sharing this information with patients and providers upon request. The guidance does not amend any current law, including HIPAA, nor does it override any existing FDA governance. The guide simply serves as a clarification for medical device manufacturers.

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Brevity may be the soul of wit in the literary world, but it’s the opposite of a good thing when it comes to safe, comprehensive, and cost-effective patient care.

In the value-based care environment, where multiple entities may be financially responsible for the same patient’s long-term outcomes, thorough communication between care providers is essential for ensuring that services aren’t unnecessarily duplicated or accidentally forgotten as individuals move across the care continuum.

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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Tuesday delivered a 2018 MACRA proposed rule that would add more flexibility to the health IT mandates associated with the law.

The proposal pushes back the requirement that clinicians use 2015-certified electronic health records for another year. Instead, doctors can continue to use legacy systems if they choose and those that opt to use 2015 editions would get a 10 percent payment bonus from CMS.

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Healthcare professionals are increasingly looking into patient engagement technology solutions that help them determine how and when to best engage a healthcare consumer, according to a report from Black Book Research.

The report includes testimony from nearly 750 industry leaders, including chief information officers, chief financial officers, and hospital managers. Ninety percent of respondents said that patient engagement technology will dominate their population health management tools going forward.

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