TCPI Goals: Improve Quality, Reduce Costs & Focus on Patient-Centered Care
Welcome to 2 New Practices to Join the VCSQI SAN 2.0:
- JF Southwest Heart Clinic – Houston, TX – Cardiology
- OPA Medical – Oxon Hill, MD – Family Practice
(See full list of enrolled practices further below)
Upcoming Webinars/Learning Sessions
Help Stop the Opioid Epidemic: Reducing Opioid Misuse is a CMS Priority!
CMS strongly encourages all clinicians and practices to review national opioid prescribing guidelines and your opioid prescribing practices to assess how you can make a difference to help address and impact this major national problem. All clinicians and practices should review national opioid prescribing guidelines to consider revising your own prescribing practices that can make a difference to help impact this major national crisis.
New Mobile App provides opioid prescribing guidelines. Click here to view and download.
Half of All Opioids Prescribed are for Non-Cancer Chronic Pain
AMA-SAN Webinar: Reversing America’s Opioid Epidemic & How Physicians Can Better Prepare
Review last week’s webinar: access the recorded presentation here
You are also invited to join the opioid discussion – held as part of the AMA Running Your Practice Community, it will run through Sept. 1 and is a chance to ask opioid questions and have them answered by those who staff the AMA Opioid Task Force. Visit the discussion page.
Webinar: Supporting Families Affected by Opioid & Other Substance Use Disorders — Wednesday, September 6, 2017, 1–2:30 pm EDT
SAMHSA and the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, Children’s Bureau invite you to join a webinar titled, “Supporting Families Affected by Opioid and Other Substance Use Disorders, CAPTA Plan of Safe Care.”
Click here to register for Opioid Webinar
Video: What Happens When Clinicians Prescribe Too Much
Watch this message from the Texas Board of Pharmacy alerting prescribers to recognize warning signs of misuse and precautions to take.
Person & Family Engagement Expert Presentations:
* Please note, you will need to login to www.practiceadvisor.org with your existing account or create a new ACP Practice Advisor® account to access the modules. Registration is free to PTN-enrolled clinicians, and PTN and SAN staff. Please contact Monica Lizarraga (mlizarraga@acponline.org) with any questions.
Health Literacy Coaching — “PFE –The Better Way to Be”
IPFCC’s Mary Minniti provides a brief overview about how to incorporate health literacy into your practice, followed by clinician Q & A. Recording from August 24 click here.
Collaborative Medication Management — Monday, September 11, 2017, 4 – 5 pm EDT
IPFCC’s President and CEO Beverley Johnson will present on best practices in collaborative medication management, a particularly timely and urgent topic. To supplement her presentation, participants may want to complete the CME-eligible ACP Practice Advisor® module on Collaborative Medication Management* before or after the event.
Click here to go to the TCPI calendar for additional information on this event.
Person & Family Engagement — Monday, September 18, 2017, 4 – 5 pm EDT
IPFCC’s Mary Minniti will talk about the why’s (wise) and how’s of engaging patients in their direct care and as practice improvement partners. Participants can visit the CME-eligible ACP Practice Advisor® module on Patient Engagement* before or after the event.
Click here to go to the TCPI calendar for additional information on this event.
Quality Payment Program Presentation:
Improvement Activities – How to Select Measures and Position Your Organization for APMs — September 15, 2017, 3 – 4:30pm EDT
CAPG is pleased to present a new complimentary webinar series for physicians and physician groups participating in the Quality Payment Program, part of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). Through a co-branding agreement with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the sessions combine CMS expertise on the regulation content with CAPG members’ knowledge of how clinicians are responding on the ground to the important changes it brings. Each session will include Q&A time with the presenters. Subject matter experts from CMS will provide an overview of the Improvement Activities performance category under the Quality Payment Program. CAPG will have its members cover key implementation steps for physicians and physician organizations starting on this important transition. For more information, please contact Dr. Amy Nguyen, anguyen@capg.org or 213.239.5051
Register: http://eventcenter.commpartners.com/se/Rd/Rg.aspx?805234
News from CMS on Quality Payment Program:
3 Mandatory Bundles Will Likely Be Canceled, a 4th Scaled Back
CMS just issued a proposed rule that would cancel three mandatory bundled payment programs, significantly roll back a fourth, and cancel a cardiac rehabilitation incentive payment model.
- Cancel the mandatory Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) and Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) bundled payment models, also known asthe Episode Payment Models (EPMs), which is currently scheduled to begin in 98 metropolitan areas on Jan. 1; and
- Cancel the Cardiac Rehabilitation (CR) Incentive Payment model, a program designed to incentivize providers in 90 U.S. regions to increase patient utilization of cardiac rehabilitation that is currently scheduled to begin on Jan. 1. Three Advisory Board experts give their key takeaways. Read more here.
Participate in Quality Payment Program Website Testing
CMS wants the Quality Payment Program website to meet the needs of the clinician community, by providing streamlined access to information and minimizing undue burdens for program participation. CMS invites representatives from organizations of all sizes to assess current and future functionality of the website, as well as make recommendations for improvements. CMS is looking for Medicare clinicians, practice managers, administrative staff, EHR and Registry vendors. If interested, please email Partnership@cms.hhs.gov to participate in a one-on-one feedback session.
VCSQI Resources: Cardiac Surgery Evidence-Based Protocols
VCSQI’s Multi-Center Red Blood Cell Transfusion Study
Cardiac surgery accounts for 20{407ac5a1c3664d12063f649ef13ac264ddc5691f1aad397cd50a48bf859e3803} of blood transfused within the United States.1 Today 30-65{407ac5a1c3664d12063f649ef13ac264ddc5691f1aad397cd50a48bf859e3803} of patients undergoing cardiac surgery receive a blood transfusion 2-3 and often receive more than one unit. Today, emerging literature is noting that blood transfusions are associated with worse outcome, longer hospital and ICU stays, decreased post-operative quality of life and even increased mortality after heart surgery out to 60 months.
What Do You Want to Hear More About?
Let us know what you want to learn more about and if you have questions for your colleagues enrolled in the VCSQI SAN 2.0! Contact us at vcsqi.org@gmail.com or (913) 909-3140.
Quote of the Week:
“Unity is strength. . . when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.” — Mattie Stepanek was an American who wanted to be remembered as “a poet, a peacemaker, and a philosopher who played.” He published 7 best-selling books of poetry and peace essays before his death at the age of 13 from a rare disorder, dysautonomic mitochondrial myopathy.
About VCSQI SAN 2.0: Primary Goal
The goal of the VCSQI SAN 2.0 is to assist enrolled practices progress through the 5 phases of the Quality Payment Program (QPP) practice transformation process. Starting with review of your baseline practice assessment, we will guide you and your practice leaders through practice improvement activities and changes. Our goal is to successfully keep your practice moving from one phase to the next to optimize your CMS reimbursements in the QPP, and improve quality, reduce costs and focus on patient-centered care.
Enrolled Practices:
- Cedar Edge Chiropractic, CO
- Graduate Vascular and Endovascular Surgeons, Philadelphia, PA
- Havasu Cardiac Surgery, Havasu, AZ
- Houston Methodist Cardiovascular Surgery Associates, Houston, TX
- Mid-Atlantic Cardiothoracic Surgeons, Norfolk, VA
- Nebraska Heart Institute, Lincoln, NE
- Orlando Cardiovascular Surgeons, Orlando, FL
- Sentara Heart Hospital, Norfolk, VA
- JF Southwest Heart Clinic, Houston, TX
- OPA Medical, Oxon Hill, MD
VCSQI SAN 2.0 Enrollees’ Progress
- 10/10 — have completed baseline practice assessment
- 2/10 — now in Phase 2
- 8/10 – reviewing assessment and creating plans
Introducing Sentara Heart Hospital & Mid-Atlantic Cardiothoracic Surgeons Working with VCSQI SAN 2.0
The tradition of Mid-Atlantic Cardiothoracic Surgeons (MACTS) is built upon 50+ years of providing patients with the highest quality comprehensive cardiothoracic surgical services. The depth of our experience is demonstrated in the fact that we have performed over 50,000 open heart operations. MACTS surgeons participate in Sentara Heart Hospital’s four multispecialty programs to provide comprehensive diagnoses and individualized treatment plans for patients with heart failure, arrhythmias, heart valve disease and chest malignancies If you need some help to lower your physical activity check https://move-central.com/. The multi-specialty programs include: The Heart Arrhythmia Center, The Advanced Heart Failure Program, The Heart Valve and Structural Disease Center and The Thoracic Surgery Center Program.
Sentara Heart Hospital is recognized as a destination medical center nationally recognized for offering quality comprehensive heart care from advance diagnostics and imaging to minimally invasive heart procedures, heart surgery and heart transplants. On the campus of Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, the hospital consistently ranks among the nation’s top heart programs in U.S. News & World Report. In the 2016-17 rankings, the cardiology and heart surgery program ranked 24th in the country, which marks the program’s 17th year among the nation’s elite top 50 hospitals in the survey.
As a dedicated heart hospital with 112 inpatient beds and 45 pre- and post-procedural rooms for patients undergoing outpatient heart procedures, Sentara Heart Hospital’s advanced setting was built from the ground up for superior heart care and continues to be the choice for consumers in the mid-Atlantic region and beyond.
Resources for Enrolled Practices:
- VCSQI Overview on MACRA, MIPS, and APMs:
http://vcsqi.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/VCSQI-SAN-2.0.pptx
- Registration on HealthcareCommunities.org: http://www.healthcarecommunities.org/Help/FAQs/Registration/HowtoRegisterontheHCPortal.aspx
- TCPI Resources:
- Change Package: http://www.healthcarecommunities.org/Communities/MyCommunities/TCPI/TCPI/ChangePackage.aspx
- Change Driver Diagram: http://vcsqi.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/TCPI_DriverDiagram_Color_March16_vpdf
- Practice Assessment Tool: http://vcsqi.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/NCC-PAT-2.2_Specialist_xlsx
- Alternative Payment Model Design Toolkit: http://vcsqi.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/QPP_How_to_Design_an_APM.pdf
- Access to exclusive patient educational resources, clinician protocol library, and clinical/financial reporting portal on VCSQI.org – coming soon
Please contact us at vcsqi.org@gmail.com with any questions, comments, or requests for additional information.
Together We Can Make a Difference
VCSQI SAN 2.0 August 2017 – All Rights Reserved
