By David Barry – CVS’s acquisition of Aetna is a back to the future move. Decades ago, before the acronym PBM (Pharmacy Benefit Management), insurers contracted with individual pharmacies and offered members access to them at discounted rates. In so, the benefits (medical, dental, behavioral, and pharmacy) were packaged.
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By Kate Goodrich MD – CMS is actively working to move the needle on improving quality in healthcare without additional burden to those providers on the frontlines. CMS recently launched a new initiative, ‘Meaningful Measures,’ which will streamline current measure sets.
By Fiora Au – As big data platforms become more popular, two models of data management—aggregated and federated—are emerging as two of the most common patterns, but which one is better? The main difference between the two models is how they store, access, and surface data.
By Gopal Khanna MBA – A few weeks ago, I wrote about my vision for creating an AHRQ 2.0—transforming the Agency into a leader in health services research in a digital age. I described four pillars that are central to this effort. The first pillar is: developing a platform to create data-informed insights.
By Jamie Clifton – It’s hard to imagine what patient data will look like in ten years, seven years or even five years from now. We know there will be a lot more of it and its value in the delivery of care will only continue to grow.
By William Hersh MD – The news that Vanderbilt University Medical Center, home to one of the most esteemed academic informatics programs in the country, is replacing its collection of home-grown and commercial EHR systems with Epic shows that the era of the home-grown academic EHR is coming to a close.
By William Hyman – Now I’m being a patient. I visit my provider at a major medical center. I subsequently get a text message advising me to check my patient portal for updated information with a link that didn’t work. The portal is an AllScripts product which is also the EMR being used by my provider.
By Dr. Kevin Keck – Spurred on by factors such as the growing geriatric population, the increase in the prevalence of chronic disease and advancing big data capabilities, population health is growing a decidedly quick clip.
By Teresa Zayas Caban, Tracy Okubo, & Kevin Chaney – Earlier this year, the ONC, in partnership with National Institutes of Health, announced the Sync for Genes pilots – an effort to strengthen genomic data sharing that is part of the Precision Medicine Initiative.