Weekly Healthcare Roundup: August 1-6

Weekly Healthcare Roundup: August 1-6 August 5, 2016

It’s the first week of August and CMS finally identified the 14 payer regions that are eligible to participate in an innovative new primary care model called CPC+. The initiative is being dubbed the “largest-ever” move to change US primary care delivery and payment. So what do practices need to know before they decide to apply?

Here’s what we’re reading:

REGIONS FOR CPC+ INITIATIVE ANNOUNCED – On Monday, CMS determined the 14 selected regions that would have an opportunity to set the stage for delivering advanced primary care in the US. Through CPC+, providers are rewarded for value and quality by providing comprehensive primary care. Enhanced in-person hours and streamlining care coordination across the healthcare system are among the key components of the initiative. Read more on how CPC+ affects practices here.

HARMS OF A LACK OF INTEROPERABILITY – University of Michigan’s Julia Adler-Milstein published a case study this week about the harms of a lack of interoperability. According to the case study, interoperability is still a problem because of the myriad of “technical, policy, and cultural barriers, misaligned incentives, and due to the fact that EHR adoption was prioritized over interoperability.”

CMS SELECTS PARTICIPANTS FOR RURAL HEALTH DEMONSTRATION – Besides CPC+, CMS announced yesterday the 10 rural hospitals in Montana, Nevada, and North Dakota that will participate in a demonstration that’s aimed at serving Medicare beneficiaries who live in remote areas. Since the patients living in these locations often travel hundreds of miles to see a doctor, the reimbursements provided through this program could help tackle the burden placed on these patients in order to receive treatment.

DID YOU HEAR THE NEWS ABOUT ELATION? – It’s not often that Elation makes the healthcare headlines, but this week, we announced that we were backed with $15 million in new funding, signifying tremendous progress towards our goal of enabling physicians to focus on patient care. In case you already haven’t noticed, we changed our name from ElationEMR to Elation Health too.

Thanks for being a part of Elation’s community and reading this week’s edition of our weekly news roundup. If you have any submissions or feedback feel free to email us: questions@elationhealth.com

And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter for more healthcare headlines: @ElationHealth

Read more Weekly Healthcare Roundups here: July 17-23, August 7-13, and September 11-17.