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INNOVATIONS IN
MEDICAL PRACTICE
IMPROVING PATIENT CARE
THROUGH REAL-TIME DATA SHARING
By Gijs van Oort, Executive Director HASA
The center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) has can hurt productivity. He was quoted during his Jan. 18 confirmation
embarked on a multiphase, multi-year overhaul of the hearing to say, “We’ve turned many physicians and other providers
healthcare system, in which the focus shifts from fee- into data entry clerks and it detracts … from their productivity but
for-service to value-based care. The “Triple Aim”, pro- it detracts greatly from their ability to provide quality care.” He went
moting better care and better access at affordable rates drives CMS on to defend their benefit, especially for patients, saying, “The elec-
to set goals of delivering 50 percent of care in Alternate Payment Set- tronic medical record and electronic health records are so important
tings by 2018 and 85 percent of all Medicare fee-for-service payments from an innovative standpoint; [they] allow the patient the oppor-
to be based on quality and value. These initiatives preceded the Af- tunity to have their health history with them at all times and be able
fordable Care Act and have had bipartisan support. to allow whatever physician or other provider access to that. We in
The new administration has been insistent on repealing Oba- the federal government have a role in that, but that role ought to be
macare. While no clear alternative plan is in place, there have been interoperability; to make certain that different systems can talk to
indications that interoperability will continue to be in play. Tom each other so that it inures to the benefit of the patient...”
Price, now the head of HHSC, agreed that electronic medical records
In addition, 90/10 federal funding for connecting Medicaid
18 San Antonio Medicine • September 2017
