PHIERworks

PHIERworks is a Sustainable Jobs Plan that uses existing resources to better fill existing and emerging needs faced by a growing number of Americans.  It will connect job seekers to organizations with a social mission in ways that will improve health, save time and cut cost of delivering care to all members who join.  By training PHIERStaff to use a public health information exchange and referral service (PHIERS, based on VistA), we can improve the quality and continuity of care that every veteran and dual eligible receives. We will accomplish this in a timely, cost-effective and sustainable manner, by using existing, local resources smarter than they’re currently being used to fill unmet needs.  

In less than 3 months, we believe that every job we create and every patient we serve will have a positive cost impact on society… allowing participating organizations to leverage the strengths of the community to improve adherence to care plans and the quality of care transitions as patients travel across settings and between providers.  In this way, we will improve the health status of participating communities. We intend to prove that less costly care can yield better outcomes for more people, at lower costs than privatized, profit-driven health care systems will provide. This will enable us to organize and enable safety net programs to compete, at the regional level, against the healthcare giants and win!

Job seekers will be trained to use PHIERSafe, an open source case management system and personal health record based on VistA. This training will be  available free of charge for job seekers, as well as community-based small businesses and safety nets organizations that participate in PHIERrescue coordinated interventions.

PHIERS is free to qualified community organizations, and PHIERS.org will work with public health and hospital systems to sponsor placement of specially trained staff.  This plan can improve population health for a fraction of the cost of profit-driven health and hospital systems nationwide.  In addition to providing similar benefits as private health insurance plans, our low cost program will offer the same benefits as single-payer and a public option, and pay for itself out of savings, without charging members premiums, deductibles or copays.