Did you know there are 6,120 hospitals in the US? Do you need to know about the CMS final rule on Medicaid Program; Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Managed Care Access, Finance, and Quality? What is USCDI that the ONC is so passionate about? Are US hospitals actually securely sharing health information data? Where are provider practice resources to improve EHR and other data capabilities while promoting ongoing QI? For these burning questions and more, we give you these five reports for your weekend reading.
Fast Facts on U.S. Hospitals, 2024
There are 6,120 hospitals in the United States. As the national voice and advocate for the nation’s hospitals and health systems, the American Hospital Association is committed to providing hospital statistics like this and data to support the field, including its annual survey of hospitals in the United States. Among other data points, the survey includes the number of government hospitals, the number hospitals in each state, and the number of hospital beds.
CMS Ensuring Access to Medicaid Services Final Rule (CMS-2442-F)
On April 22, CMS released the final rule, Medicaid Program; Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Managed Care Access, Finance, and Quality (CMS-2439-F). The rule helps build stronger managed care programs to better meet the needs of the people enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP by improving access to, and quality of, care.
Didn’t have time to view the final rule? Sellers Dorsey summarized everything you need to know.
ONC Health IT Standards Bulletin
ONC Standards Bulletin 2024-1 (SB24-1) describes the background of USCDI and the development of the Draft United States Core Data for Interoperability Version 5 (Draft USCDI v5), which ONC released on January 18, 2024. Interested parties across the healthcare ecosystem benefit from USCDI, which sets the technical and policy foundation for the access, exchange, and use of electronic health information to support nationwide, interoperable health information exchange.
Data Brief: Interoperable Exchange of Patient Health Information Among U.S. Hospitals: 2023
This brief reports the share of U.S. hospitals that reported they routinely engaged in interoperable exchange in 2023, as this is a goal of government and industry efforts. In addition, this brief describes the breadth of electronic information exchange between hospitals and other providers across the care continuum and focuses on how often clinicians in these hospitals routinely use this information at the point of care.
AHRQ – Obtaining and Using Data in Practice Improvement
The authors designed Obtaining and Using Data in Practice Improvement: A Handbook for Health IT Advisors and Practice Facilitators to be a resource for the coaches who provide health IT-related assistance for primary care practices to support their QI and practice transformation efforts. The audience for this handbook includes both the health IT-focused coaches who support QI work (who we refer to as “Health IT Advisors”) as well as the practice facilitators/coaches who have the necessary background, interest, and skills to provide clinical health IT support.