Medicaid’s health homes initiative was created to provide comprehensive care coordination and disease management for Medicaid beneficiaries with chronic conditions. One of the major challenges this initiative and others like it are facing is the ability to share information across separate networks.
Our goal is to tailor PHIERS to help train local, un(der)employed health and social workers to use the Veteran Administration’s electronic health record and case management system called VistA. We chose VistA because it’s publicly owned and is already used by more than 1200 hospitals, clinics and nursing homes across the nation. The majority of doctors and nurses have also been trained to use it. *
We will train local talent to perform like a well-trained labor force, paid for by savings directly attributed to participation in this program. This solution can remain in place and thrive, despite the outcome of pending funding cuts to safety net programs, and thus help cities and states better meet rising demand.
After the completion of this training and the dissemination of certified users (PHIERStaff) into the health home environment, outcomes will improve and the cost of care can be reduced by 50 – 75%. These savings are more than enough to generate positions that pay fair wages for at least 1.5 safety net support jobs. For this reason, we believe that our pilot, which will work in solidarity with the DC Department of Health Care Finance Health Homes initiative, will resolve well-documented problems related to poor care transitions for patients who must travel across settings and between providers.
- Click HERE to learn about the expert’s responses to these challenges.
- Click HERE for our response.
PHIERStaff will improve the quality of care transitions by assisting with health information transfer before and after each encounter – using the VistA PHIERSafe as a system of record. It will store information from all sources, making it more current and complete than what is available to patients through existing commercially-controlled health information systems.
We will provide a free and secure HIPAA-certified health information service (PHIERSafe) to safety net and community organizations to improve collaboration on behalf of patients/clients they share responsibility for. PHIERStaff will make sure the members of the patient-centered care team has access to the right information at the right time, before bad decisions and medical mistakes are made.
PHIER-powered Health Homes will create jobs that improve patient safety while reducing the likelihood of costly complications, ER visits and readmissions, saving billions.
Our plan will improve the quality and continuity of care provided to patients while honoring existing investments in health/IT – making it easy and cost-effective to eliminate data silos and fragmented care. Plus, it can be implemented for 10% the cost of commercial EHRs that will not share data securely with one another – without requiring costly integration efforts. The best part is that is can be easily replicated in cities across the nation – for a fraction of the current cost to society. Click HERE to learn how.
In 3 – 6 months after launching (Spring 2017), we will have the data needed to prove that less costly care can deliver better outcomes – and can thus exert downward pressure on rising health care costs. This will provide a viable alternative to privatized profit-driven health care delivery and payment (insurance) plans. This will qualify individuals, local nonprofits and small businesses with a social mission to receive performance-based grants based on their contribution to a healthier community.
Success in DC will be a catalyst for positive change across the nation since safety net programs that serve them have similar interests and needs that PHIERS can help fill.
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