Practices getting CMS bonus relied on IT

As FierceHealthcare readers know, Medicare recently gave out $16.7 million in bonuses to 10 large group practices that had met its quality improvement goals. The groups involved in the Physician Group Practice Demonstration, which included the Marshfield Clinic, Forsyth Medical Group and Geisinger Clinic, all met performance goals on at least 25 of 27 quality markers for patients with diabetes, coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure. The project also created enough savings to free up an extra $5.8 million to the Medicare Trust Fund.

Along the way, CMS administrators noted, the groups relied heavily on health IT to manage chronically-ill patients and to report data on their performance. The majority of the practices use EMRs, for example, and many developed registries of patients with the illnesses the project was tracking. In many cases, meanwhile, the groups ended up upgrading their IT infrastructure to better manage patient data. At least one group, the Marshfield Clinic, directly attributed its success to health IT use. Through such smart IT use, groups said, they were able to cut hospitalization costs and reduce the level of other intensive services.

For more information:
- check out the Government Health IT article

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