Using Data to Drive Healthcare Value

by: Jennifer Simpson

As more and more of the health economy evolves to a value-based care model, access to high-quality data that integrates well across the continuum of care is essential to delivering better outcomes at lower costs.

Health Center Controlled Networks (HCCNs) help health centers deliver higher quality care at lower costs by using health information technology to improve care coordination and identify opportunities for partnerships that provide economies of scale.

At the end of September the Integrated Work team supported a convening of 56 Health Center Controlled Network (HCCN) project directors and senior leaders along with leaders with leaders from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC) in Rockville, MD and Washington, D.C.

Over two days, participants explored the role of health information technology in improving access to care, fighting the opioid epidemic, and reducing provider burden among other timely topics.  A key theme in the conversation was the need for data to be “interoperable”—able to be easily shared across systems in ways that generate meaningful insights in a timely way.  Doing this well while also protecting patient privacy will be critical to achieving the true potential of value-based care.

Creating integrated data systems also requires strong human partnerships and taking the time to pause, reflect, and connect yielded great insights and new opportunities to work together. To prepare for the work ahead, the leaders identified six focus-areas for coordinated efforts:

• Telehealth
• Patient Portal Usage/Features Assessment
• Data & Risk Stratification
• Provider Burden Assessment/Survey
• Research
• Increase Data Sharing & Integration

While each of these represents a discrete challenge to solve for, taken together they continue to build a strong foundation for a health center learning system that can adapt and evolve in a rapidly changing landscape and provide true leadership in the move to value-based care.