Eye Care Communications, Part 1

EMRlogic has launched a National Eye Care Communications Project. This week's posts are dedicated to explaining what this project is and why we need it. We'll look at it through the eyes of a new and very important pilot project, the Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative.

The National Eye Care Communications (NECC) Project is a collaborative platform allowing providers, working in cooperation with their state associations and other professional groups, to share their experiences. The NECC Project emphasizes projects, activities and capabilities destined to affect independent eye care statewide and nationwide that must be supported at a grass-roots level. We offer the Project as an adjunct to local activities, a roadmap that clarifies the end game of health care reform and connected care. 

For several years, the health care media has been full of news about federally-driven and sponsored initiatives intended to lay a foundation for the future of health care. Much of that news has gone unnoticed by providers at a local level. As some of these important projects, the Beacon Community Program for example, draw to a close we are seeing the emergence of new pilot projects at the state and local levels. One such new initiative is the Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) Initiative, a multi-payer initiative in AR, CO, NJ, NY, OH/KY, OK and OR, fostering collaboration between public and private health care payers to strengthen primary care. It is critical that independent eye care providers understand the pivotal role of the primary care physician in the transformation of health care and, correspondingly, the role of the ECP and other specialist providers in the team-based care delivery model. Understanding this relationship is the key to the successful future of independent eye care. The CPC Initiative gives us a clear window into this vital pilot project.

The Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) Initiative 

The CPC initiative is one of many coordinated-care pilot projects shaping team delivery of care and participation in shared savings.  CPC, like every other team delivery model, is based on team members sharing electronic patient health information. For this reason, the NECC project emphasizes first and foremost that independent eye care providers must be equipped, both conceptually and technologically, to share and communicate electronic patient health information. The national standard for this kind of communication is DIRECT. The DIRECT standard was established by the Office of the National Coordinator and is offered by a variety of Health Information Service Providers (HISPs) throughout the country.  Since communicating electronically via this national standard is a pre-requisite for participation in the CPC Initiative, it is better for the local provider to have implemented this capability already, rather than wait to start once the primary care physician seeks to qualify as a CPC participant.

Learn more here about the Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative. Pay particular attention to the shared savings opportunity. The fundamental concept behind team delivery is that the quality of care will increase and the team will find ways to decrease the cost of delivering care. Conceptually this makes sense, but in practical terms, you need to be positioned to share in the savings. Shared savings is what makes team delivery work. Otherwise, for the healthcare providers, all savings that the team generates are lost income. The shared savings program repays directly to the providers 85% of the savings that the team creates. You will not share in these savings if you don’t position your practice correctly and get involved with care teams.


To be continued ...

Alistair Jackson, M.Ed.
Jim Grue, O.D.