I'm getting started on the following stories--if you think you might have anything to contribute that might be helpful, you can reach mehere
Financial
In the more than a year since the Stark reforms, the world of HIT has shifted dramatically. Now that the government is reimbursing physicians directly for implementing an EHR directly, do physician groups (and individual physicians) even need the hospital-offered incentives anymore? In short, has HITECH blown up your enterprise Stark strategy? I'll be digging down into the loss of control CIOs may face when physicians start contracting on their own, and ask if “divorce” is a reasonable outcome. And for those hospitals who have already purchased EHRs for their community docs, I'd like to know the steps CIOs actually took to ensure a smooth process--and share lessons learned about what can go wrong. I'm also looking at the working relationship between the CFO, the CIO and the physician when it comes to Stark, and see how together they decide how many physician systems they can afford, which ones they want to support—and which physicians get them.
Clinical
Most agree that keeping people with chronic diseases out of the acute care setting will be a big part in keeping down cost as part of healthcare reform. CHF, diabetes, asthma and other chronic conditions can all be effectively controlled—if they are effectively managed. HCI will take a look at some hospital-based chronic disease management programs that use IT as a facilitator, and find out which models are the most effective. We’ll talk to CIOs who have developed intervention models for their patients and boosted their quality measures for their hospitals. As always, I welcome your insights. And I sure hope it stops raining soon.
