Health at work and community tightly linked: New employer engagement tool

Health at work and in the community is tightly linked. Unhealthy communities can compromise employer investments to improve employee health and productivity and present an economic barrier to product consumption and economic investments.

A healthy community, on the other hand, may be more desirable to live and work and therefore, good for business. For several years the National Business Coalition on Health (NBCH) has facilitated engagement between employers and community stakeholders in population health improvement strategies. NBCH has supported community health grant projects, provided technical assistance, and developed educational materials for business coalitions and partners.

This newly-developed engagement tool helps coalitions partner with local employers and other stakeholders to improve health in their communities. It includes:

• Assessment of an employer’s priorities and why they might want to participate in community-level health improvement activities
• Results from County Health Rankings, ranked by local opportunities for improvement relative to the national average
• Potential next steps and resources
• Employer case studies
• Financial impact analysis framework and calculator

More information, including links to the tool and an informational webinar, is available here. This project was conducted with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s County Health Rankings and Roadmaps Program. The tool was developed by Discern Health.

Health Affairs Article on Shared Savings Programs

An article in the September issue of Health Affairs, co-authored by Joel Weissman, Michael Bailit, Guy D'Andrea, and Meredith Rosenthal, discusses "lessons learned" from early adopters of shared savings programs. Shared savings programs reward providers for holding spending below specific targets, thus introducing a level of financial accountability for physicians not present in strictly volume-based payment models, such as fee-for-service. The article examines the design and application of shared savings formulas across a range of actual programs. It also presents a more detailed description of one particular shared savings program—the Massachusetts Patient-Centered Medical Home Initiative—focusing on key trade-offs between payers and providers that eventually led to agreement on specific aspects of the program. The article concludes with recommended principles for the design of future shared savings arrangements and consideration of issues that will confront decision makers as these efforts mature and expand.

Information on QECPs from Discern

Medicare claims data soon will become a national resource for reporting on quality and cost of providers, according to Chris Haffer, PhD, the CMS project leader for the Qualified Entities Certification Program (QECP). Discern played an important role in the development of the requirements for QECP, and Discern Partner Linda Shelton is one of the first QECP executive reviewers trained to review applications submitted by prospective Qualified Entities (QEs).

Created by the Affordable Care Act, the QECP will allow qualified entities (QEs) to purchase and use huge files of Medicare Parts A, B and D claims data. Combining Medicare claims data with other data sources could make provider report cards much more useful to the public. For instance, using Medicare data and some of the approved standard measures may allow QEs to report on medical specialties for which commercial data alone does not provide enough cases.

A public or private entity or consortium can apply for certification as a QE. The QECP team will be offering a free, online informational sessions this spring for entities interested in applying. Please visit the website at www.qemedicaredata.org.