Becker's Hospital Review

43 Executive Roundtable Conifer Health Solutions brings 30 years of healthcare industry expertise to clients in more than 135 local regions nationwide to help strengthen their financial and clinical performance. Conifer Health helps organizations tran- sition from volume to value-based care, enhance the consumer and patient healthcare experience and improve quality, cost and access to healthcare. Annually, the company manages more than 24 million unique patient in- teractions, more than $29 billion in net patient revenue and more than $22 billion in medically managed spend. Conifer Health also provides technology and health management services to support care management for nearly 6 million lives. For more information, visit ConiferHealth.com or follow @ConiferHealth on Twitter. We have weekly dashboards that show timely documentation. Then to make it easier for providers, we are looking to optimize the EHR so documentation is more efficient, and we are look- ing to work with our EHR provider to identify ways that we can streamline the workflow. Our patients are newly diagnosed with cancer. Their tolerance or threshold for wait times is narrow. We expect that, and we want to provide timely access to care. We've had to ask phy- sicians to load-level their templates; we've had to ask them to open up new slots to see additional patients so we can cater to demand that is upon us. JR: Hospitals are working to improve collaboration as the in- dustry moves to promote clinically integrated networks in an ef- fort to contain costs by providing consistent, high-quality care. Q: Reimbursement for healthcare organizations is gradu- ally shifting away from the traditional fee-for-service mod- el. How is your organization evaluating and measuring physician performance to support and adhere to new val- ue-based payment programs (i.e. MACRA and MIPS)? JW: We are still in the evaluation phase of identifying which of the [Advancing Care Information] measures we are going to report on. Being a cancer center, many of them don't apply to us, so we have to be very deliberate in identifying which mea- sures will most accurately reflect the quality and value of care we provide. We also have a department of payer strategies that is dipping their toes into the water with regard to additional bundle pay- ment models. We are working with our payers to find ways to demonstrate our value and still provide a reduced cost to the payer. We have our clinical pathways that we really believe will streamline care, eventually reduce the cost of care and still pro- vide better outcomes for our patients. JR: We are currently expanding our physician-owned group in an effort to provide a broad spectrum of care. At the same time, we are aligning our physician compensation models to reflect the changes under the value-based payment models. Q: Employed physician integration is only possible with right governance structure and management of the physi- cian enterprise. How have your governance and manage- ment structures changed to support a successful transition to value-based reimbursement and population health man- agement? JW: Physicians have been integrated into the health system by their leadership roles, participation in initiatives, board repre- sentation, etc. Physicians have an active voice in how the center operates. JR: The current governance understands the changing reim- bursement dynamic and is working with our physician leader- ship to ensure high-quality healthcare is provided while pre- serving the margin that will sustain our mutual mission. Q: How are hospitals and physician groups collaborating to improve the competitiveness of the system in the market, and the care the hospital provides? JW: Moffitt has a lasting commitment to the prevention and cure of cancer through patient care, scientific discovery and education. That includes bringing these components to areas outside the Tampa region. We are standardizing not only the experience, but also care via clinical pathways designed to re- duce variation and increase predictability of outcomes. JR: We recently implemented a new EMR that is the commu- nity standard for Medical Center Health System, Midland (Tex- as) Memorial Hospital and Odessa (Texas) Regional Hospital, which includes Midland and Odessa, as well as the teaching organization that works with all three facilities. Q: How are your employed physician groups and hospital addressing and managing leakage within the system when patients are diverted out-of-network? JW: We have a robust screening process at the front of our new patient process to ensure patients are scheduled with the right provider, especially because we are a specialty cancer center. We address that in several ways: First, we have open access to get the patients who belong at Moffitt Cancer Center here. Then we ensure we get patients to the right provider at the right time, so we can avoid that sort of leakage. JR: We are working collaboratively with our employed physi- cians who understand the importance of maintaining certainty of care for our mutual patients. We are also working together to improve the patient flow within the system. This is not only beneficial for the patient, but for the entire organization as a whole. n

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