Transformation is defined as thorough and dramatic change. There is no doubt that health care has required thorough change to shift from fee-for-service (FFS) to value-based payment. As practices and healthcare system begin to change, buy-in for the changes is essential for everyone. From patients, front office staff, back office staff, interdisciplinary team members, providers & the medical neighbor, we cannot change alone. 

Pediatric practices often receive incomplete coaching in transformation initiatives due to the focus on adult topics and chronic pediatric measures. “Kids are not just young adults” says Anita Rich, CCHAP Director of Community Outreach and HealthTeamWorks’ strategic partner in the BC3 Program.

In a recent CDC study of adults aged 18 and over, 48.9% reported using one or more prescription drug and 23.1% reported using three or more prescription drugs in the past 30 days. These numbers tell us what those in the healthcare industry already know: most patients are taking at least one medication. As the number of medications that a patient is prescribed goes up, so does the complexity of managing care on both the patient and practitioner/care team and the possibility of medication errors.

Since HealthTeamWorks^® was founded more than 20 years ago, we have helped practice achieve measurable results and highest quality of care.

Anyone working in healthcare knows the game has shifted.

Primary care practices across the nation are actively engaging in Federally sponsored transformation initiatives to test models of care that improve health outcomes in their patient populations, including the State Innovation Model, the Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative, and Comprehensive Primary Care Plus among others. Practices are no longer pioneering transformation, they are partnering and collaborating as they move towards value-based care.

A few weeks ago the House passed an untenable Affordable Health Care Act (AHCA) plan on to the Senate. Now the Administration and GOP leaders are hurriedly re-crafting the bill with hope of a scheduling Senate vote on it in July – so they can move forward with the rest of the GOP administration’s agenda. Today we still don’t know what the replacement to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will actually be and how long the process of enacting it will take. We will not know even what its impact will be on Americans, medical practices, delivery networks, or on Medicare, Medicaid and commercial insurance carriers.

This week, CMS announced the results of the national CPC program’s shared savings performance for 2015. Four of the seven regions participating in CPC – the states of Arkansas, Colorado, and Oregon, and the Greater Tulsa region in Oklahoma – realized net savings and will share in those savings with CMS.

St. James Healthcare in Butte, Montana received level 3 NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Recognition for using evidence-based, patient-centered processes that focus on highly coordinated care.

Unprecedented levels of support and resources are becoming available to primary care practices in Colorado that want to improve, change and transform into examples of excellence in advanced patient-centered care.  Overseeing many of these efforts is Dr. Perry Dickinson, Professor in the University of Colorado Department of Family Medicine, and Director of the Department’s Practice Innovation Program and the Colorado Health Extension System.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) recently announced the continued funding (more than $149 million in awards) through 12 workforce programs to prepare the next generation of skilled, diverse primary care providers to serve communities in need across the country.