The purpose of a Community Health Assessment goes beyond achieving state requirements or receiving accreditation. If you're a local health department, you may be interested in finding ways to push your CHA data further to more easily identify ways to improve health equity and community outcomes. Focusing only on submission can be counter-productive to the community outcomes you want to achieve. In this blog, we'll give you an overview of the importance of conducting a CHA. Plus, we'll provide you with key information you can use to reset your workflow and rethink your processes. Why you need to complete a Community Health Assessment Certain states require a CHA because it provides a systematic review of a community's health status and essential data and information regarding the health of the community. Specifically, the New York state Department of Health writes, "Community health assessment is a fundamental tool of public health practice. Its aim is to describe...

Hospitals and health systems understand the importance of diligent healthcare strategic planning. It enables them to monitor their markets while evaluating potential challenges and opportunities. However, without the right healthcare data at their fingertips, these initiatives can be more time-consuming and less efficient. How are players in the healthcare industry using data in 2024 and beyond to drive their strategic planning efforts? Let's look at some pain points hospitals and health systems are facing. First, hospitals and health systems must contend with recurring data challenges related to interoperability, accuracy and privacy. Secondly, to keep up with a changing consumer landscape, providers must adjust workflows and projects based on new industry data. We've detailed each challenge below and provided three strategies to combat them. What data to use in your strategic planning 1. Claims data When it comes to strategic planning in healthcare in 2024, providers must wid...

As a local health department, your Community Health Assessment helps you discover your community’s story so you can better identify and achieve key improvements. If you feel you can achieve more from your CHA, then it’s time to re-examine your approach. It’s not as difficult as it seems, and there is a roadmap: MAPP 2.0 . The Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnership tool was developed by the National Association of County and City Health Officials in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Using MAPP 2.0, DataGen created a five-month action plan that you can use over the span of five months for a better CHA — no matter where you start from or what your results have been. How to re-examine your CHA approach Month 1: Organize for success and partnership development Identifying the right internal and external community partners is the single most important step for a successful CHA. These are the individuals, at every level, who will champion, lea...

The healthcare industry has faced many new challenges in recent years. How does this seemingly ever-changing landscape impact healthcare improvement in 2024 and beyond? Based on the Institute for Healthcare Improvement 2023 Forum, quality improvement, safety and culture, equity and a functional delivery system remain top priorities across sectors. This was reflected in the forum agenda , which included 10 tracks and a scientific symposium with three primary focus areas: Quality: Addressing value, cost and quality; diagnostic excellence and improvement science Culture and safety: Building capability, leadership, workforce well-being and patient and workforce safety Patient focus: Equity, person-centered care and population health Since DataGen participated, we’ll give you some exclusive insight into what was discussed so you can better understand what’s driving healthcare in the new year. The future of healthcare improvement: 4 major insights 1. Quality requires a systems approach Th...

On Nov. 2, CMS finalized the calendar year 2024 Medicare Outpatient Prospective Payment System final rule . The 2024 OPPS final rule includes policies that will: add 10 services to the Inpatient Only list; establish an intensive outpatient program; expand the partial hospitalization program rate structure; update payment rates and policies for ambulatory surgical centers; update the requirements for the Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting Program; outline quality program requirements for Rural Emergency Hospitals; and standardize the reporting of standard chart data using a CMS template. Read on to learn essential OPPS final rule information, important details and dates. We’ll also reveal how you can register for DataGen’s upcoming client exclusive OPPS rule analysis webinar . 4 key CMS 2024 OPPS final rule components 1. Expanded and updated rates CMS estimates a 2.1% rate increase for CY 2024, which represents a $6 billion increase in outpatient payments compared to the CY 2023 OPPS...

Six years after its launch, CMS’ Oncology Care Model ended on June 30, 2022. Oncology practices that participated and stayed through the entirety of the program had clinical buy-in for the delivery of value-based care for cancer patients. However, despite CMS’ desire for a replacement model to continue OCM’s practice transformation, its Enhancing Oncology Model didn’t attract critical mass. At this point, you may be asking yourself, “What happened to all the practices that participated in OCM? Why didn’t they choose to continue?” In this blog, DataGen will answer those questions with three observations about EOM. Observation #1: Failure to meaningfully incorporate clinical adjustments CMS failed to incorporate clinical adjustments into EOM’s target price methodology in a meaningful way, beyond what was demonstrated in the final performance periods of OCM . Instead of factoring clinical data elements into the underlying cancer-specific regression models, EOM continues to incorporate a ...

Tackling Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System data is a large lift for New York state Article 28 hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers. This can be even more challenging when the state updates or adds SPARCS requirements and adjusts timeframes. In this blog, we’ll outline three SPARCS submission deadlines you need to know. Plus, we’ll cover how the Department of Health addresses statements of deficiency and what it could mean if your facility receives one. 2023 SPARCS data submission compliance deadlines As New York hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers know well, DOH requires SPARCS data submission for its comprehensive all-payer data reporting system. Facilities must submit 100% of required clinical, billing, admission, discharge and transfer data with 100% accuracy, on a quarterly basis and by a set date. 1. Quarter 1 2023 data Facilities that haven’t submitted their first quarter 2023 SPARCS data began receiving statements of deficiency last month. (See the “Wh...