Premier healthcare alliance to host series of Healthcare Reform Executive Briefings

To prepare healthcare providers for the strategic implications of reform and the tools needed for future success, the Premier healthcare alliance will host a series of Healthcare Reform Executive Briefings.

“We have developed detailed impact and management solutions to help manage the changes that will be required in law.”

The reform law reduces hospital payments by about $200 billion over 10 years. At the same time, the law imposes new requirements that will tie additional reimbursement dollars to a hospitals' ability to improve quality and clinical processes, prevent harm in the areas of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and hospital-acquired conditions (HACs), and reduce readmissions. These payment policies could put as much as 15 percent of a hospital's inpatient Medicare payments at risk.

"In order to survive and thrive under reform, hospitals must have a firm understanding of the law's requirements and begin engineering changes now that will help them maximize their efficiency and improve clinical quality," said Susan DeVore, Premier president and CEO. "The timeline for implementation is short, and a failure to implement change immediately could have negative financial and competitive impact on hospitals."

The sessions, open to both Premier member and non-member hospitals and non-acute care healthcare providers, will be led by health policy experts who will break down the various provisions of the healthcare reform bill. They will provide detailed analyses of the strategic implications reform will have on payment, compliance and hospital processes.

Topic areas to be covered in the Executive Briefings include:

• Coverage expansion and financial implications
• Payment reductions
• Quality, safety and cost measurement
• Physician alignment
• Transparency
• Waste, fraud and abuse
• Health information technology and meaningful use requirements

Briefing dates, locations and local times are:

• May 17 - Chicago from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
• May 26 - Dallas from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
• June 24 - Charlotte, N.C. from 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
• July 8 - San Diego from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Unique programs and services that Premier provides to help its members succeed under reform provisions include:

1. Hospital specific data sets, calculators and analytics to model reimbursement shifts over time to identify financial vulnerabilities and areas of focus under reform.

2. Lessons learned from large-scale cost and quality collaboratives including the Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration™ (HQID) with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), a test-bed for value-based purchasing included in reform.

3. Best practices from the QUEST^®: High Performing Hospitals program that will help hospitals avoid payment penalties by enhancing quality, expanding evidence-based care delivery, improving patient safety, preventing harm and eliminating excess costs.

4. Regulatory management strategies, including key dates for CMS implementation of major legislative provisions.

5. Accountable Care Organization (ACO) collaboratives to prepare for and begin working toward implementation in time to qualify for contract with CMS no later than January 1, 2012.

6. Electronic safety surveillance and clinical quality decision support tools tailored specifically to reform provisions to help hospitals improve patient care quality and avoid payment penalties and other areas of risk.

7. Labor, productivity, efficiency and spend analytic offerings to help providers more closely monitor costs and mine data for areas of cost reduction and optimal business performance.

"Our work as an alliance has been informed by a deep understanding of where reform is going and how to lead the change. Now that healthcare reform is law, providers have a unique opportunity to take advantage of Premier's expertise, offerings and knowledge sharing to navigate the new terrain," said Blair Childs, Premier senior vice president of Public Affairs. "We have developed detailed impact and management solutions to help manage the changes that will be required in law."

SOURCE Premier healthcare alliance