Aug 10, 2022
IT TAKES A COMMUNITY: A CALL TO ACTION FOR KENTUCKY PROVIDERS
The pandemic has worsened the behavioral health challenges Kentuckians face, and more solutions are needed to address this mounting problem. It’s more important now than ever to share knowledge and best practices among providers along the behavioral health care continuum.
Join us as we bring together providers from across the Commonwealth to be part of a Behavioral Health Community of Practice, organized by UK HealthCare and Kentucky REC, where mental health experts will share ideas and best practices to optimize care for Kentuckians.
The Community of Practice format is monthly one-hour webinars October 2022 through May 2023 from noon – 1 pm.
The webinars will connect primary care providers, specialists and organizations through learning sessions where behavioral health experts will present best practices, interactive trainings, group discussions, tools, and resources to optimize care.
Participants:
• Adult primary care, internal medicine, and pediatric primary care providers and staff
• Community mental health center providers and staff
• Community-based organizations
• State agencies
• Other behavioral health partners
Community of Practice participation is free and Mental Health First Aid Training classes will be offered on a first come first served basis.
Visit HERE for more information and to register for the first three webinars.
To learn more, visit THIS UK HealthCare web page.
QUESTIONS? Contact us at Kentucky REC or call us: 859-323-3090.
Jul 6, 2022
JUST A FEW SPACES REMAINING – Contact us now! Kentucky REC or 859-323-3090
The Kentucky Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Program at the Kentucky Department for Public Health (KDPH) recently received a multi-year grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to improve hypertension clinical outcomes. One of the strategies Kentucky has chosen focuses on the implementation of a robust clinical quality improvement Hypertension Learning Collaborative (HLC).
This Collaborative will be a 12-month process by which health care organizations come together to learn from one another, and from experts in the field, and then undertake small tests of change to reach self-identified objectives within their own organizations. The focus for the HLC will be to assist health care organizations make “breakthrough” increases in the adoption and use of clinical systems and care practices to improve health outcomes in adults with uncontrolled hypertension. Targeted clinical outcomes will include improvement in blood pressure control and use of statin therapy. Clinical system changes will include: clinical decision support within the EHR for Cardiovascular Assessment; Risk Reduction; and Education Collaborative Self-Measured Blood Pressure Monitoring (CARE SMBP) referral; the establishment of bi-directional referral processes with CARE SMBP providers; and other evidence-based care practices.
HYPERTENSION LEARNING COLLABORATIVE HIGHLIGHTS
JULY 2022 — JULY 2023
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- Receive monthly technical assistance, monthly webinars and quarterly Learning Sessions, with regular reporting
- Educate patients on options for blood pressure screening, refer interested patients to Self-Measured Blood Pressure Monitoring at Local Health Department
- Conduct small tests of change using quality improvement methodologies
- Financial Support: $1500 quarterly
HERE is a flyer with all the grant opportunities listed.
Contact us at Kentucky REC or 859-323-3090 to learn more.
Jun 9, 2022
SAVE THE DATE! DECEMBER 8, 2022 – Kentucky REC Annual Conference – With KHIE
During our day together, we’ll discuss quality initiatives, HIPAA, Telehealth, and more to ensure that clinicians, hospital and ambulatory administrators, and clinic staff are well prepared for the challenges of modern healthcare. We’ll have both in person and virtual options.
Details, Agenda, and Registration Coming Soon!
Questions? Contact us at Kentucky REC or call us at 859-323-3090.
May 5, 2022
From CMS:
CMS Reweighting 2021 MIPS Cost Performance Category
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recognizes the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic public health emergency (PHE) continued to have on clinicians and the services they provided in the 2021 performance period.
Due to COVID-19’s impact on cost measures, we’re reweighting the cost performance category from 20% to 0% for the 2021 performance period. The 20% cost performance category weight will be redistributed to other performance categories in accordance with § 414.1380(c)(2)(ii)(E). Please see the table below for reweighting scenarios.
Why CMS is Reweighting the MIPS Cost Performance Category for 2021
Cost was already reweighted to 0% for all individual MIPS eligible clinicians, even if data were submitted for other performance categories, due to the automatic extreme and uncontrollable circumstances (EUC) policies under § 414.1380(c)(2)(i)(A)(6) and § 414.1380(c)(2)(i)(C). Our analysis of the underlying data for the 2021 performance period shows similar results at the group- and individual-level across measures. As a result, we believe that reweighting shouldn’t depend on whether you choose to report as a group or individual.
Given these circumstances and in accordance with § 414.1380(c)(2), we’ll assign a weight of 0% to the cost performance category for the 2021 performance period and redistribute the prescribed weight of 20% to another performance category or categories.
Specifically, we don’t believe we can reliably calculate scores for some of the cost measures that would adequately capture and reflect the performance of MIPS eligible clinicians based on the following reasons, as shown by our analysis of the cost performance category data for the 2021 performance period:
• Most measures have higher observed and risk-adjusted costs at the episode-level. This indicates that risk adjustment at the episode-level doesn’t entirely account for differences in resource use, particularly for broader measures or measures that are clinically proximate to respiratory disease and COVID-19.
• There’s less of an effect at the provider-level for most measures where testing shows that scores don’t appear to be adversely impacted by higher case-loads of episodes with a recent or concurrent COVID-19 diagnosis. However, there are a small number of measures where scores may be adversely affected by the volume of episodes with a COVID-19 diagnosis.
Please note that starting with the 2022 performance period, instead of reweighting the entire cost performance category, individual cost measures can be suppressed if the data used to calculate the score was impacted by significant changes during the performance period, such that calculating the cost measure would lead to misleading or inaccurate results. This provision allowing greater flexibility was finalized in the CY 2022 Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule.
Clinicians don’t need to take any action as a result of this decision because the cost performance category relies on administrative claims data.
MIPS Performance Category Weight Redistribution Policies Finalized for the 2021 Performance Period
The table below* illustrates the MIPS performance category weights and reweighting policies that apply to MIPS eligible clinicians, groups and virtual groups in the 2021 performance period.
*This table can be found at § 414.1380(c)(2)(ii)(E).
This reweighting of the cost performance category applies in addition to the extreme and uncontrollable circumstances (EUC) policies under § 414.1380(c)(2)(i)(A)(6) and § 414.1380(c)(2)(i)(C).
• Cost was already reweighted to 0% for all individual MIPS eligible clinicians, even if data were submitted for other performance categories, due to the automatic EUC policy.
• Cost will now be reweighted to 0% for all groups and virtual groups, even if they didn’t request reweighting through an EUC exception application.
As a reminder, under § 414.1380(c), if a MIPS eligible clinician is scored on fewer than 2 performance categories (meaning 1 performance category is weighted at 100% or all performance categories are weighted at 0%), they’ll receive a final score equal to the performance threshold and a neutral MIPS payment adjustment for the 2023 MIPS payment year.
Cost Data in Performance Feedback for 2021
We recognize that this is the second year that we’ve had to reweight the cost performance category due to COVID-19, and that clinicians need more insight into and familiarity with their performance in this category. To support this need, we’ll provide patient-level reports on the 2021 cost measures for which clinicians, groups and virtual groups met the case minimum. Patient-level reports will be available as part of the final performance feedback in August 2022.
Please note that we won’t include measure-level scoring information in performance feedback. As previously mentioned, we don’t believe we can reliably calculate scores for the cost measures that would adequately capture and reflect the performance of MIPS eligible clinicians.
Questions?
Please contact the Quality Payment Program at 1-866-288-8292 or by e-mail at: QPP@cms.hhs.gov. To receive assistance more quickly, consider calling during non-peak hours – before 10 a.m. and after 2 p.m. ET.
• Customers who are hearing impaired can dial 711 to be connected to a TRS Communications Assistant.
Contact the expert advisors at Kentucky REC for all your QPP, MIPS, and APM questions. We’re here to help: 859-323-3090.
Jan 25, 2022
What are the SAFER Guides?
Safety Assurance Factors for EHR Resilience Guides (SAFER Guides) were developed and released by the ONC in 2014 and updated in 2016. This series of nine user guides support healthcare organizations in their ability to address EHR safety. Collectively, the SAFER Guides help healthcare organizations conduct self-assessments to optimize the safety and safe use of EHRs in three areas – Foundational, Infrastructure and Clinical Process. The SAFER Guides are intended to be used by EHR users, developers, patient safety organizations, and those who are concerned with optimizing the safe use of Health IT.
Source:HealthIT.gov
How do SAFER Guides self assessments help my organization?
By completing a self-assessment using the SAFER Guides, providers can help develop a “culture of safety” within their organizations and ensure they are responsible operators of technology tools, including certified health IT products, which they use in the delivery of care.
Is my organization required to complete a SAFER Guides assessment?
On August 13, 2021 CMS issued the final rule for fiscal year (FY) 2022 Medicare Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long-Term Care Hospital (LTCH) Prospective Payment System (PPS). The final rule updates Medicare payment policies and rates for operating and capital-related costs of acute care hospitals and for certain hospitals and hospital units excluded from the IPPS for FY 2022. Under the rule, a new “SAFER Guides Measure” has been added to the Protect Patient Health Information objective.
Hospitals must attest to having completed an annual assessment of all nine guides in the SAFER Guides measure.
What are the Medicare Promoting Interoperability Program attestation requirements for the SAFER Guides measure?
For Calendar Year (CY) 2022, this measure requires an eligible hospital or CAH to attest to having conducted an annual self-assessment of all nine SAFER Guides at any point during the calendar year in which the EHR reporting period occurs. The measure will be a “yes” or “no” requirement, but it will not be scored, and it will not affect the total score for the Medicare Promoting Interoperability Program.
How is a SAFER Guides assessment completed?
In order to complete a self-assessment of the SAFER Guides, CMS expects that each eligible hospital or CAH will complete the checklist of recommended practices included at the beginning of each SAFER Guide. Following the checklist, a practice worksheet provides the rationale for, and examples of, how to implement each recommended practice, along with likely sources of input into the assessment of each practice, and fillable fields to record follow-up actions.
Where can I find the SAFER Guides assessment tools?
The SAFER Guides assessment tools and additional information are available HERE.
Is my organization still required to conduct a Security Risk Assessment (SRA)?
A security risk assessment must be conducted by all covered entities per the HIPAA Security Rule, regardless of participation in the Medicare Promoting Interoperability Program. If participating in the Medicare Promoting Interoperability Program, eligible hospitals or CAHs must attest to having completed both an SRA and a SAFER Guides assessment.
Resources:
Federal Register Final Rule
SAFER Guides Information
Call 859-323-3090 or email Kentucky REC our HIPAA Privacy and Security experts with your questions. We’re here to help.
