Update on EHR, Our Primary Care Strategy, and Preventing a Gap in Care
Dear Partners:
EHR Update
The EHR rollout has begun with the Oncology Department on the Grove Hill side going live this month. Starling was awarded with the “Oncology Care Model” designation from CMS/Medicare, and the EHR is a key piece required to facilitate patient care and reporting. This topic has received acclaim from the regional press and healthcare leaders, which put us on a national map for quality practices.
We will be periodically posting EHR videos on this portal to provide you with previews and basic instruction. As you get closer to your department’s rollout, you will receive more detailed education and training. Click here to see our most recent EHR video update.
Partnering With Our Primary Care Providers
We are working on an Adult Primary Care strategy with internists from both branches, having the goal of continuing our growth in new patients and working more efficiently as providers. For a variety of reasons, hiring PCP doctors has been difficult for years and understanding how to assist our current PCP providers is one of our highest priorities.
New patients are the lifeblood of a doctor’s practice. As a multispecialty group, a single patient may be served in many ways by our different doctors and ancillary services. This affords numerous benefits to our organization, and an integrated experience to our patients. A larger patient base also brings increased respect and opportunity from business partners. We are also looking to innovate in our interaction with patients and with one another in order to facilitate patient referrals between departments and branches.
Preventing Patients From Falling Through the Gap
A number of our insurer relationships (Medicare “advantage” = M.A. programs) reward us for keeping our patients from falling through the cracks in their healthcare. They aptly name this “Gaps in Care” meaning that a patient has missed an important preventative health study or test, either because they haven’t been to the office, or it was been ordered but they didn’t comply. We have the opportunity to do some good for these patients and help get them the care they need to stay healthy (e.g. mammograms, diabetic eye exam, and others).
We are organizing a process for Gaps in Care that will identify the patients, only in those insurer relationships, to start with, and will work with your offices on outreach to those patients. Certainly, there are non-compliant patients that we won’t be successful in reaching, but there are some individuals who we will be able to support.
These programs are increasing in popularity and give us access to additional payments for the doctors. It’s worth the effort, given the financial support. It also makes us a better group of doctors. We will make sure that patients are aware of these programs through generic Medicare Advantage awareness efforts in our offices.
Until the next article,
Jarrod Post, MD
CMO