Increasing Profits Through Value-Based Care

Hospitals and health systems are looking to optimize their revenue by turning to value-based care from volume-based care. Widely used models where the number of patients determines the financial success of the practice is now being offset with the option to profit off preventive care and increase the quality of care.

So how does this work? And what are the benefits to patients, and to the healthcare facility and its different departments?

Incentive & Bonus Payments

VBC programs award practitioners based on the quality of care they are providing through bonuses and incentive programs. As an example, with the center for Medicaid and Medicare services, there are 5 key VBC rewards programs:

  • End-Stage Renal Disease Quality Incentive Program (ESRD QIP)
  • Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Program
  • Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP)
  • Value Modifier (VM) Program (also called the Physician Value-Based Modifier or PVBM)
  • Hospital Acquired Conditions (HAC) Reduction Program

Incentive programs like these are meant to motivate care optimization and help the healthcare industry as a whole move away from fee-for-service models and into bundled care solutions that are compensated by overall patient health.

The drive for this performance-based shift has been evolving since the passing of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA). In 2018, this alternative payment model (APM) comprised roughly 36% of total U.S. healthcare payments up from 25% in 2015.

To work, bonuses and incentives can’t stay stagnant and they have to grow proportionate to APM revenues, and live in a 10-20% range of projected cash compensations.

Stabilized Cash Flows

Perhaps the most attractive benefit of VBC is that there are more predictable cash flows in times of service fluctuation (e.g., the coronavirus pandemic). Financial losses were top of mind during the height of the pandemic as hospitalizations increased exponentially, affecting providers in unexpected ways, and testing their ability to adapt. Those practices able to embrace digital telehealth solutions were able to stay more nimble without compromising their data collection and intake processes, further – those with VBC models were able to continue to receive regular payments vs fee-for-services models which saw a staunch decline. 

“Hospitals and health systems that have mostly recovered from the initial hit of the pandemic had invested before the crisis in areas such as hospital-at-home services and digital capabilities that allowed rapid expansion into virtual care and remote patient management.” 

Additionally, certain healthcare practices may actual thrive under a virtual care model:

Some specialties, such as mental health, may find stronger footing via virtual visits. Healthcare provider executives surveyed by HRI most frequently cited mental health and psychiatry (58%), family medicine (56%), obstetrics and gynecology (46%) and pediatrics (44%) as the specialties in which their organizations will offer virtual visits in 2021.

Payers may wrestle with how to reimburse and, in some cases, provide virtual care. Pharmaceutical and life sciences companies may have to determine where they can and should plug in, literally. Providers may continue to improve the patient experience and be careful not to create new disparities in the health system through lack of technology access.

With 95% of large US employers covering telehealth, up from 56% in 2016, business leaders will have a say in how virtual care is used and how it should be woven into the healthcare system.

The revenue (and analytics) of VBC models stabilizes revenue and spending by improving patient outcomes and creating more consistent care continuums – identifying gaps in care, and bundling treatment modalities for preventive care options.

Healthy patient populations create revenue as new reimbursement policies put forth by payers and government agencies promote preventive solutions.

Go Beyond Hospital Walls

A big proponent of the success of VBC is that it is adaptable and, because it is focused on treatment success over fee-for-service, this model is able to be more flexible in incorporating external therapies within approved networks. 

With greater accessibility comes the need for greater amounts of data to manage it and along with the implementation of VBC comes the need for real-time applications and management platforms to capture and analyze patient data; for reporting but also to mitigate risk. 

When it comes to utilizing these applications; for patients it needs to be incredibly easy to use – accessible with the tap of a screen, and for providers it needs to be able to track multiple practitioners, patient records, manage transportation, and facilitate transactions, all with regulation levels of security and compliance.

At Primavera, we focus on real time results and make it easy to access the complete member record, case management, scheduling, transportation, healthcare analytic care data and financial analytic data for your patients and practice. This integrated support is what gives VBC models the organization and adaptive structure they need to support a variety of patients – even under unexpected circumstances – without compromising profitability.

Curious how this solution could work for you? Reach out to us today to get started. 

Adrian EsquivelIncreasing Profits Through Value-Based Care
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Time Sensitive Opportunity: Federal funds made available to help FQHCs modernize technology tools to better leverage patient-level data

HRSA just recently announced it is making $90 million available to federally qualified health centers to assist them as they transition to new reporting requirements that have been redesigned to collect more and better data on social determinants of health. The modernization effort aims  to increase the granularity of the data being collected by leveraging advances in health information technology and aligning with other interoperability standards and reporting requirements in other federally funded health care programs.

Why shift to patient-level data?

HRSA believes this will help to better evaluate the Health Center Program, provide targeted training and technical assistance, and advance quality improvement research. Such research may lead to improvements inequitable access to high-quality, cost-effective care, including addressing the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 and supporting responses to future public health emergencies

For health centers, standardization of patient-level health data will enable the identification of populations most at risk for health disparities and will provide data to inform potential clinical interventions.

What can the funds be used to do?

Funding will support improvements in infrastructure, such as health information technology, and enhanced data collection and reporting through FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources).  The funds will support patient-level reporting and enable them to better identify, measure, and investigate disparities in health care use and health outcomes by race, ethnicity, age, and other important demographic factors, and to more precisely target their resources accordingly. Furthermore, the ability to collect, house, and report standardized patient-level health data will support health centers’ participation in critical population health surveillance activities during public health emergencies. Big takeaway here… this will help position the organization to be eligible for future funding opportunities.

Some award specifics:

This is a time-sensitive opportunity. Applications are due May 23, 2022 by 5pm ET. HRSA anticipates that awards will be made on or around August 1, 2022.

Approximately $88.4 million in supplemental funding is available in FY 2022 to support additional allowable ARP activities, including UDS+ activities, through the end of your ARP period of performance (March 31, 2023 for HRSA-funded health centers and June 30, 2023 for look-alikes).

HRSA anticipates awarding approximately $60,000 per awardee through one-time supplemental funding. Depending on the number of approvable applications, HRSA may adjust award amounts consistent with funds available for this supplemental funding opportunity at the time award decisions are made.

HRSA expects to release funding on or around August 1, 2022, for use throughout the remainder of your American Rescue Plan Act (H8F or L2C) award’s period of performance (until March 31, 2023 for HRSA-funded health centers and June 30, 2023 for look-alikes),

Partner with Primavera Health 

Primavera Health provides a customizable ecosystem of tools that allow providers to capture the required data by a FQHC when you need it most. We were founded and built with a brain for business and a heart for patients providing a data analytics solution that is centered around real-world applications in the healthcare sector. Primavera’s Core Values are Actionable Intelligence, Ease-of-use and Performance that not only meet but exceed your reporting requirements.

Providing technology that was designed by a team of healthcare professionals and industry experts to serve healthcare professionals through a complex IT architecture and relationship database systems – we are here to help your FQHC succeed. Having in-depth experience building out government funding reporting systems for our clients, we are positioned to partner with FQHCs to succeed. For example, we recently completed reporting interface that tracks key patients services being provided through the Volunteer Health Services Program in Florida.

To learn how Primavera can directly support you to meeting HRSA application deadline while improve required reporting across your organization, Reach out to us today or sign up to schedule a demo with Primavera in the below form!

 

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Adrian EsquivelTime Sensitive Opportunity: Federal funds made available to help FQHCs modernize technology tools to better leverage patient-level data
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Primavera Webinar: Excelling in the Business of Value-Based Care

Primavera Presents: Excelling in the Business of Value-Based Care

  • Are you looking to learn more about how to adopt and embrace Value-Based Care?
  • Is your organization lacking a Value-Based Care strategy and implementation?
  • Are you hoping to improve patient care while reducing costs but don’t know where to start.

If you answered “Yes” to any of those questions, this webinar is for you.

Watch the webinar below to learn great insights and solutions on how you can not only engage in Value-Based care but benefit with the help of our expert advisors:

  • Value-Based Care fundamentals – what it might mean to different people at a practice
  • Important key drivers necessary in VBC that help align, patients, payers and providers in a value-based structure
  • Risk payer settings and how to best position your practice in an advanced payment model
  • How important technology and administrative infrastructure is in setting your practice up for success
  • I think VBC is right for me – What steps can/should I take?

Adrian EsquivelPrimavera Webinar: Excelling in the Business of Value-Based Care
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3 Benefits of Primavera’s Value-Based Care Advisory Services

Value-based care (VBC) is an alternative to the historical fee-for-service (FFS) model of healthcare reimbursement. It means transforming the payment model such that the healthcare provider – the physician, for example – is paid not necessarily by volume and the types of procedures, but is compensated for the quality of care – a more coordinated and appropriate approach. 

VBC  affords many opportunities for improving the quality and continuity of care for healthcare organizations and their patients. Transitioning to it can be a challenging and involved process, so let’s look at why this model is worth your consideration.

Reduce out-of-pocket spending with higher quality deliverables

Out-of-pocket payments (OOP) are highly influential financial elements across the health sector – particularly in lower-economic populations where financially vulnerable patients are significantly affected by OOP costs.

Decreasing OOP costs seems like a no-brainer for improving patient retention and increasing access to care – so the issue boils down to does reducing OOP compromise care quality? The short answer is it doesn’t have to. 

VBC models promote higher-quality care deliverables for reduced OOP models by increasing patient monitoring (through easy access to resources, education, and communication), increasing simplicity for revenue optimization and collection, and resource management through risk assessment and data analytics.

Improve coordination between physician behavior and incentives

From changes in clinical and organizational workflows to the underlying data infrastructure of practices, it can be challenging to coordinate an effective relationship between physician behavior and offered incentives. In the VBC model this relationship can reflect greatly in both preventive and post care follow ups. 

“VBC helps to promote care delivery transformation” by facilitating a redesign in approach for primary care efforts – a lot of which is supported by newer technologies, apps, and cloud-based solutions. 

Physician payment incentives for value remain small relative to total compensation, with continued emphasis on productivity. Challenges cited include the lack of a single enterprise wide electronic health records platform for information exchange, limited ability to influence specialists who were not exclusive to the organization, lack of payer cost and utilization data to manage costs.”

The success of incentive programs depends more and more on the communication success between patient data and the ease of that data’s implementation across the organization. Features like real-time risk assessment, one-touch communication, and transaction capabilities make continuous care models not only sustainable, but achievable.

Drive customer retention

Health is a well-intentioned business, and the number one way to boost business is to create more affordable, higher-value products. In this desire, patients are no different than any other consumer – they want the best care value for their money and in return you will drive retention and an expanding client base.

While retention is largely cost-based, in VBC models it depends on all factors, let’s break down the implementation.

Getting Started

A Primavera advisor can help you transition to value-based care and improve the quality, value and care for your patients.

Step one is to evaluate the best ways for your practice to engage in VBC contracting and care initiatives. This leads us first to revenue optimization.

  1. Revenue Optimization

We mentioned offering higher quality products for a better value. This begins with lowering medical costs by first improving your infrastructure efficiencies and determining cost drivers such as MRA and MLR. 

  1. Improving Results

Next we want to improve healthcare results by closing gaps in care tracking and collecting data more efficiently to help identify outliers, diagnose trends, and mitigate risk while simultaneously improving patient outcomes through more efficient communication and care plan execution. 

  1. Membership

Finally, we want to use data analytics to identify positive growth trends within your patient-base to help expand on successful programs, and improve the patient panel experience and care delivery systems; consultation, transportation, payor services, vendor relationships, etc.

VBC all ties back to retention as it is a client-first solution – but one which doesn’t exclude the needs and values of the organization. Is it a newer and less widespread model than traditional care systems? Yes. But that makes sense since it has evolved with brighter technologies that can make it not only an appealing, but an extremely practical solution.

Solution Enablement

Our software solutions enable you to improve the quality of care and enhance the patient experience while helping you take control of your financial future through VBC models and overall streamlining of your organization.

Transitioning to value-based care is challenging; requiring resources, time, a priority shift, and evaluation but with a Primavera advisor – it’s easier together. Let us map out the plan and tools you will need to be successful. 

Primavera customizes value-based care solutions based on your needs, to drive better clinical and financial outcomes. Providing revenue optimization and improved medical economics. Our experience and expertise in value-based care strategy and implementation allows you to focus on ensuring patients get the right care – with quality health outcomes.

Reach out to us today to learn how we directly support you to continually improve outcomes across your organization by encouraging collaborative models like value-based care.

Adrian Esquivel3 Benefits of Primavera’s Value-Based Care Advisory Services
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Virtual Care: More Than Just Telehealth

Telehealth solutions are software solutions. They help manage patient’s, data, and allow for scheduling, delegation, and administration. In many minds, this is where the definition of telehealth stops; but this service is more than a tool – it is a platform for communication and for engaging with your patients on a human level.

The goal is to extend care beyond the physical limits of a brick and mortar facility, adding virtual care – without compromising care quality.

Barriers to Care

Healthcare has had to adapt over the last few years – and it will need to continue to evolve now that new technologies are being integrated. Healthcare providers have had to be creative and rethink how they can provide the best care given realistic hurdles. In the spirit of growth, there are two main barriers to care we want to bring up:

Cost of Care

Quality care costs money – both for practitioners and for patients. From operational costs to testing; staffing, and maintenance, the hidden and everyday costs of healthcare facilities can be mitigated by virtual solutions. Telehealth is instrumental in reducing those costs for both providers and care recipients.

Industry analysis of telehealth solutions by Cigna, shows that telehealth not only reduces in-person healthcare visit costs by “$93 for non-urgent needs, but a specialist visit via telehealth was $120 less than an in-person visit, and a virtual urgent care appointment was $141 less than going to an urgent care clinic.”

Additionally, telehealth solutions “omit the need for unnecessary (mandatory) lab testing “which led to an average savings of $118 per episode of care.”

Access to Care

Access to care rolls right into our point regarding cost, since financial flexibility for patients is definitely an incarnation of accessibility – but so are transportation, education, and healthcare provider options. Telehealth by its nature is connective – and is constantly growing in it’s inclusivity and offerings for healthcare plans.

Internally, telehealth platforms make it easy to schedule transportation, host virtual calls and appointments, schedule follow-ups, and provide self-care and educational materials, etc. Solutions like Primavera begin addressing accessibility with the technology itself:

  • No App is required to be downloaded by patients – this is particularly great for geriatric populations, or those with other mobility or cognitive pathologies. Care can be reached with the single touch of a button.
  • Virtual visits are supported with high resolution video, easy to access invites, and tools available in multiple languages.

For providers, accessibility of technology is also mission-critical:

  • Enjoy built-in schedulers
  • Intuitive dashboards supported by up-to-date analytics
  • Seamless integration into your software suite
  • And support of multiple participants

Consider This

Managing your patients by population or diagnosis helps to manage remote health offerings, therapies, and protocols. Organization with the help of telehealth helps to bring these strategies to your patients in the form of easier access.

If your patients have better accessibility they will provide you with greater amounts of data which will help build your analytics and power real-time risk assessment features based on patient information.

Security is Accessibility

The more popular telehealth solutions (and remote tools in general no matter your sector) become, the more prevalent security will be. If you platform is not secure it is not safely accessible to you or your patients so look for a platform that supports:

  • Remote monitoring options for all integrated devices
  • Audit logs
  • SSL encryption
  • Is HIPAA compliant

Assessing Risk

Once you’ve bolstered your security, you can safely go about assessing, managing, and actioning risk to improve your care continuum and streamline the resources for your practitioners.

We mentioned real-time risk assessment earlier, let’s dive a bit deeper.

Real-time data allows you to get a view of the top utilizers of your platform, determine which are at high risk, and track progress in comparison to established industry benchmarks. With Primavera, real-time data is auto populated to support risk stratification, and to help detect outliers (not just highest utilizers).

You also can also track by pharmacy usage and other metrics to determine high risk cases in an non-static environment, meaning that the data is always updating and adjusting your view accordingly.

Building Engagement

Prioritizing patient outcomes through your software with tools like risk management and coordinating care via scheduling and connectivity are just a few of the ways that telehealth helps elevate the care cycle without increasing the cost.

Building engagements through software is something that is becoming an integrated aspect of our daily lives already, from our social meetups to our day-to-day work environments. Extending that ease of access to our healthcare is a critical part of a quality telehealth solution.

Yes, telehealth is important in our current times with notable health obstacles and the need for remote access – but this cannot be the only purpose your solution serves. We are all humans after all, and healthcare is easier together.

Want to learn more about what telemedicine can do for you? Schedule your demo with us today.

Adrian EsquivelVirtual Care: More Than Just Telehealth
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Primavera Webinar: Position Yourself to Benefit from Value-Based Care Through Data Analytics

With the shift in healthcare to value-based care, has come with an increase in data and increase of expectations for healthcare providers. Learn how to leverage your payors data to position your practice and patients to benefit from value-based care through this recorded Primavera webinar.

This Primavera Webinar: Position Yourself to Benefit from Value-Based Care Through Data Analytics provides some great insights on:

  • HealthCare’s Industry shift from Fee-For-Service to Value-Based Care
  • How to leverage your payers data to position your practice and patients to benefit from Value-Based Care
  • Identify patients in need of intervention to improve outcomes
  • Determine opportunities for improvement for cost reduction and revenue generation
  • Primavera Data Analytics App Functionality

 

Adrian EsquivelPrimavera Webinar: Position Yourself to Benefit from Value-Based Care Through Data Analytics
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Teams & Tech: A Smart Healthcare Solution

Medical Teams have been in a love/hate relationship with their technology applications for decades. Constantly asking if new technical solutions will help them grow, see more patients and provide better care. We’ve asked this question too. In fact, Primavera was built by industry professionals with that very question in mind.

Whether tech can help provide better care is not the only question on the provider’s minds. In an industry that is constantly expanding care curriculums, and redefining health – what are the most important tech features?

All-in-One

An all-in-one platform means a centralized solution. A hub that manages everything from organizing patient records to analyzing data, to securing your information. Gone are the days when you need to rely on multiple legacy software programs to handle your data entry and streamline your infrastructure. 

There are three main targets for an all-in-one solution:

Analytics

“Analytics” has become a buzzword and for good reason. Every business wants to see an analysis of their key metrics and data points and activate solutions. Why? Because analysis shows trends, helps you prioritize decisions, and casts a spotlight on any weaknesses that you can strengthen.

In telehealth, analytics bring an understanding to cost projections, current spending, care populations, and care continuums by using real-time data to highlight metrics like:

  • Medical loss ratio (MLR)
  • Market research analysis
  • Medical claims
  • Capitation

Once your data points are generated, analytics helps you auto sort, compare, review, and convey information through accurate reporting by patient, payor, location or provider -making it easy to drill down into individual facets of your business to uncover gaps or red flags that may be hindering you.

Case Management

As with analytics, case management benefits from the real-time touch a health tech solution can provide. Get live feeds from hospitals and use the platforms organizational system to recall, manage, and track patients with the enhancement of real-time updates that:

  • Inform tasks
  • Trigger notifications and alerts

The goal is to make it easy for you to preempt unnecessary costs and proactively provide care.

Member Records

When it comes to storing and utilizing records, nothing is more important than security. Multiple access points means multiple devices; desktops, laptops, personal computers, and phones for multiple users. A centralized platform solution provides the security you need through user permission management, 2-factor authentication, and standard industry compliances.

In terms of record intake, features like dictation make for a hands free experience that expedites your paperwork as it allows you to build rapport and give more focus to your patients. It’s also easy to enact surveys and other data collection tools to evaluate your care approach and target improvements. 

Your member records should fuel a 360º vision of your patients, a holistic view that is also easy to navigate. We like to say “focus on the solution, not the search”.

Ease-of-Use

Improved communication between care teams is just the first benefit of any easy to use telehealth platform. Live updates, customizable settings, team management, and seamless integrations check all of your communication boxes. Bonus, the platform also facilitates communications with patients, and vendors (like transportation providers) to fully sync your care provisions.

Ease-of-use also means ease of training – no complicated manuals are required to teach onboarding employees how to interact with a platform that has a clear, intuitive user interface and can be accessed with the touch of a button. 

This goes for your patients too – your practitioners, case workers, and general staff will all need to use the app – but so will those you care for. For patient populations who live remotely or have mobility issues – or who just aren’t that tech savvy – a one touch solution increases accessibility.

Actionable Intelligence

Here’s another area where ease-of-use plays a role. Actionable intelligence rings back to data analytics, and while smart data and data implementation are definitely a part of actionable intelligence, this is also about presenting those data sets in a user-friendly way.

By removing irrelevant data and prioritizing action items, you automatically provide better care. Risk assessment and real-time updates are a huge benefit to any healthcare team but only if the updates are easy to access, and the prioritization is easy to validate and understand.

Actionable data is applicable data, and that’s what makes it intelligent. Data you can actually use and understand vs a mass collection of data that spits out complicated charts and graphs. All data has its place, but the data on your healthcare software- the data you need to provide quality healthcare – should be simply useful.

Solution-Oriented

Primavera’s Core Values are Actionable Intelligence, Ease-of-use and Performance. Our healthcare software solution including telehealth is centered around real-world applications in the healthcare sector. 

Our tried and tested features are designed to amplify usability and prioritize risk. 

Schedule a demo today and see what a health tech solution can do for you.

Adrian EsquivelTeams & Tech: A Smart Healthcare Solution
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4 Questions to Ask when Choosing Your Practice Management Software

Selecting a Practice Management Software platform to partner with can be a daunting task. A lot of that has to do with the mammoth task of integrating a solution, training employees, updating vendors, and converting your existing infrastructure. 

To make the process easier, we’ve compiled a short list of 4 questions you should be asking when choosing a practice management software.

1. Is the Software Easy to Use?

The power of the platform doesn’t matter if you can’t easily use it. When it comes to any software implementation, the UI is a critical element to explore. Are the features easy to access? Is data organized and easy to understand? Would using this platform be easy in terms of training your employees and integrating with your existing infrastructure?

What’s the other half of the usability equation? Easy to use and organized is great – as long as the elements and features show the information you need them to. There’s also a usability consideration in terms of migrating your existing data with your new software. So ask your providers how they support you in this process. 

What We Offer

Primavera offers an intuitive UI that presents information clearly and simply to provide an effortless user experience supported by:

  • Speed: Launch in days, not weeks 
  • Simplistic setup
  • A supportive team that’s ready to help

2. How Will My Patients Use the Platform?

There are two main user profiles to consider, practitioners and patients. Choosing a software with powerful data processing is key, but inputting that data needs to be easy for all. If you need convincing, you don’t need to look any further than 1 patient population.

Currently, 81% of hospital admissions, 91% of prescriptions filled, 76% of health-provider visits and 75% of home healthcare visits are for Medicare patients living with chronic conditions.

Technology may not be as big of an issue for the Medicare populations of the future – but it is still a major consideration for the population today. Ease of use – in healthcare – is an accessibility issue.

There are many populations and accessibility/mobility issues to consider when choosing a software since it won’t just be accessed from the practitioner/operational side. 

Questions to ask:

  • What does the patient login process look like?
  • Do patients have to have a smart device or download an app?
  • Is the patient portal designed for ease of use for all populations?

What We Offer

The most important thing for patients is convenience when it comes to interacting with a technical platform – especially for less tech savvy populations, or those with restricted mobility or cognitive issues. Primavera provides access to patients with one single click – no downloads or technical know-how required.

3. Is it Powerful Enough to Manage all my Data

We’ve mentioned data quite a few times so far, and that’s because data is king. Whether you’re compiling data for analysis to apply to projections and show patterns, or just looking to get real-time communication updates, how your data is used (and the accuracy) matters. 

Questions to ask:

  • Does the software support real-time updates and how are you alerted to those updates?
  • Is data analyzed and applied to risk-assessment and prioritizing patient care?
  • Are metrics easy to manage and report on?

What We Offer

We focus on removing the barriers between you and your data. Data powers functions like connectivity, communication, risk-assessment, and applying your patient information to further inform the running of your practice. Your data should help you react quickly and build a proactive practice. We make that possible with features like:

  •  Real-time data auto-populated where you need it
  •  Informed risk stratification
  •  Outlier detection by high risk and high utilizers
  •  Pharmacy tracking by usage, brand, patient, and provider
  •  Managed data metrics

4. Does the Software Support All Aspects of My Practice?

There is more to your practice than data management and ease of use. Having a platform that integrates with your providers, vendors, payors, and patient needs is critical. You’ll also want to make sure your software partnership supports the specific needs of your practice as non-profit needs will vary from general practitioners or plastic surgeons.

Questions to ask:

  • Does the software provide the tools to manage your unique patient populations?
  • Would it be easy to schedule transportation and manage billing?
  • How was the software designed and how does the structure support healthcare requirements?

What We Offer

Primavera was designed by a team of healthcare professionals and industry experts to serve healthcare professionals through a complex IT architecture and relationship database systems. By maximizing visibility with a health-centric approach, our solution helps streamline your practice performance management and growth. 

At Primavera, we create intuitive healthcare technology to maximize the benefits for healthcare providers, care managers, caregivers, and, ultimately, the patients. Schedule a demo with us today to learn more!

Adrian Esquivel4 Questions to Ask when Choosing Your Practice Management Software
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How to Integrate Telemedicine into your Practice

Telemedicine supports and simplifies processes along a patient’s care continuum. Integrating with telemedicine also holds many benefits for physicians, their practices, and their growth. There are questions you need to ask to get started, how do you integrate, what kind of tools do you need, and how hard is telemedicine to maintain?

To answer, we’re going to break down telemedicine integration for a variety of practices and populations. Let’s get started!

Management Service Organization (MSO)

Managed care organizations are challenged with keeping taps on entire patient populations. The tasks before these organizations are largely data oriented and require the assessment and utility of managing and delegating patient data to support proactive care. 

Primavera features a data analytics solution with real-time data updates that help MSOs to act quickly, assess risk, and make the best decisions for each individual patent and practice.

Integration Tip

Find a telemedicine suite that can connect with multiple databases, and makes the adoption of existing records easy so you’re not weighed down by a clunky migration from your old methods to an optimized platform.

Primary Care Physicians

Primary Care Physicians may be connected with a large organization, or may provide through their own smaller practices. An integration need for these care-giving facilities is flexibility.

As you begin a care plan with your patients, we also start with a consultation. Explore our suite of features with an assessment. Do you need telehealth urgently to care for your remote patient population? Do you need the connectivity of an extensive platform? Or are you just getting your feet wet with data analytics and case management support?

Integration Tip

It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Using telemedicine smartly is about integrating the features that meet your needs. You can always add as you grow.

Non-Profit Clinics

Not every practice or organization is given priority in this world. Telemedicine helps break down barriers by using software to create accessibility. 

Non-profit healthcare organizations face a lot of obstacles when it comes to managing their patient populations; employee resources, legal barriers, financial strain, and the situations of those they care for. A solution is intuitive Case Management.

Receive live feeds from hospitals, prioritization based on risk stratification, assign and communicate tasks and cases with case managers, and more.

Integration Tip

The Case Management solution you choose should be intelligent, but easy for your patients to use. Especially with underprivileged populations, convenience is a large part of care. For telemedicine to be effective, it has to be accessed with the simple touch of a button.

Cardiologists

The entire Primavera healthcare software suite can be widely used for a multitude of solutions to manage a patient population within a Cardiologist’s office. We do this through ease of use. Cardiology usually applies to an older population – a less tech savvy population – we’ve mentioned we make things simple with the touch of a button but how does that work?

We call it “Frictionless Telehealth” and it simplifies introductory appointments and follow ups through video and easy communication. 

Integration TIp

Keep your high-risk populations safe by keeping them at home. Use high resolution video, scheduled check-ins, share educational content, and continuously assess your patients health from a distance. The best part for these senior populations is that they don’t even need to download an app. Accessibility even applies to tech and cutting down on the installation requirements increases the level of care you can provide to all.

Mental Health Practitioners

Surprised to see mental health on this list? Traditionally, mental health sessions are done in person, how else can you accurately assess your patient? Like with cardiology, mental health patients require timely connection and the same resources apply. 

Utilize tools like high quality video and accessibility to maximize your patients’ communication with you. 

In May of 2020, CNBC reported that first-time downloads of the top 20 mental wellness apps in the U.S. hit 4 million in April of that same year, up 29 percent from 3.1 million downloads the previous January. 

Sometimes distance encourages communication, and younger populations especially feel more comfortable from behind a keyboard – Telemedicine can help you keep up with the changing times by adapting communication methods without compromising care. 

Telemedicine integrations decrease no-shows, will give you the ability to see more patients in a day, and give patients a feeling of security. 

Integration Checklist

There are many types of practices and organizations that we haven’t covered here which benefit from integrating with telemedicine. Whether you’re an oral health professional, allergist, orthopedist, dermatologist, or plastic surgeon – the benefits of telehealth apply to you.

When you’re looking for a smart solution ask yourself what you need.

  • Easy installation
  • Easy use for patients and providers
  • A variety of features
  • Smart data analytics
  • Risk assessment and prioritization
  • Case management support
  • Connective and compatible with other tools and payment institutions
  • Secure, safe, and compliant with all regulations
  • A platform with robust capabilities and continued support
  • Next Level Security

The best place to start is at the beginning. Reach out to us today for a demo and discover how we make providing care easier together.  

Adrian EsquivelHow to Integrate Telemedicine into your Practice
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Using Tech to Transform Healthcare Management

Better. Faster. Stronger. Perhaps chasing after the dream of The Six Million Dollar Man, technology has helped transform healthcare over the years with innovations from the iron lung to robotic surgeries but it has gone beyond the advancement of medicine and extended into the wider world of healthcare.

Using Technology to Communicate

We’ll kick this off with the obvious technology advancement. Communication and technology go hand in hand and it has transformed the way patients interact with their own care. Through telehealth tools, apps, notifications, video consultations, and educational platforms, technology has done for healthcare what it has done for entertainment – forged a pathway of instant access, and made it fit in the palm of your hand.

With the single touch of a button a patient can connect with their provider on urgent matters, but they can just as easily update their profiles, symptoms, and share their data. 

Communicating Data

Updating and exchanging data is another key communication – and this one has a few more requirements beyond being instant, it also needs to be:

  • Secure
  • Actionable
  • Organized

Secure

Data security is at the forefront of most technology conversations and is especially important in healthcare where patient privacy is paramount.

When you’re looking to integrate the benefits of technology and telehealth into your practice, look for a platform that adheres to best practices for HIPAA compliance, has a bolstered approach to cyber security, and the infrastructure to maintain a next-level security experience with measures in place like:

  •  Two Factor Authentication
  •  Secure Socket Authentication
  •  Encrypted Patient Data

Actionable

Actionable data means that data can be analyzed and applied to a system to structure and manage needs like risk assessment, tracking treatment and care continuums. It also means that submitted information can be utilized to manage third-party partnerships, external therapies and financial requirements. 

From managing multiple payers and practices to communicating data to pharmacies – being able to apply your data comes with many perks. 

There’s also the matter of patient populations to consider. Risk assessment within your practice is one thing, but being able to contribute data on population and patient types helps establish trends and inform the logistics and needs of your wider practice.

Organized

Data organization goes beyond “can I find it” and moves into “can it find me”. We’re talking about organization for automation and system optimization. With Primavera’s solution you can sit back while collected information automatically populates and updates as additional information comes in in real-time. 

Streamlining the way data is received contributes to its ease of organization. Simple and secure applications that are easy to use go a long way in making the entire data collection process as efficient and useful as possible. 

Assembling Resources

Technology doesn’t just improve the efficiencies and functions of healthcare, it expands its resources, and not just for practitioners and providers. We’ve talked before about how telehealth solutions make healthcare more accessible to rural communities – but they also increase the access to information which leads to better preventive care. 

From sharing informative articles, videos and information to vastly increasing accessibility between patients and providers, technology turns our digital resources into an actionable treatment protocol. 

Benefit Bullet List

Take a quick looks with us at a few ways technology assists care:

  • Psychologists can more easily meet with their patients via virtual calls
  • Physical therapists can meet with clients virtually or send interactive exercises
  • Providers can quickly schedule transportation when needed
  • Case managers can easily access their patient files anywhere they are needed 
  • Data can be synced in real-time to be used in the most optimized way
  • Nonprofits can remain organized and interact with up-to-date information for their populations
  • Payers and financial institutions can be quickly managed for fast transactions and resolutions

Whether you’re a cardiologist or an allergist, technology is applicable to every facet of your practice, and Primavera implements it through smart telehealth solutions that manage and analyze your data securely while keeping the patient first.

Customized Care

In the same way that every treatment plan is tailored to each patient, every technological solution needs to be tailored to each practice. Factors like demographics, location, modality, and specialization contribute to each practice’s needs. 

Takeaways

Primavera was created by practitioners and we have a few supportive pillars:

Frictionless – Frictionless care is about easy connectivity and the sharing of information. In your search for a telehealth solution, make sure whatever you implement can be accessed by the most technology opposed patients you serve. If it’s harder than the touch of a button to connect then it’s too complicated.

Analysis – We’ve mentioned it already, but don’t skimp on your data analysis or data management capabilities.

Case Management – Find a solution that prioritizes data-based risk assessment, real-time updates, and efficient access to information and resources.

A Strong CMR – Implement a technology solution to organize the data of your patients and keep your database current. You also may want to find a solution that enhances record keeping with features like note dictation, data sorting, audits, and surveys.

No matter your requirements, customized tech for your healthcare organization’s needs is here and waiting for you to demo today. 

Adrian EsquivelUsing Tech to Transform Healthcare Management
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