Thursday, January 5th 2006
Physicians in Florida Connect Pay-for-Performance to Quality Healthcare
Melbourne Internal Medicine Associates Implements Kryptiq CareManager™ to Create Disease Management Benchmarks
PORTLAND, Ore. – January 5, 2005 –According to the American Medical Association, pay-for-performance programs, which seek to give physicians additional reimbursement for increasing patient compliance with recognized treatment guidelines, can improve the quality of medical care when implemented correctly. However, when poorly administered these programs can actually harm patient outcomes by pulling physician time from the patients that need it the most. To ensure both a positive financial and quality outcome, Melbourne Internal Medicine Associates (MIMA) recently deployed Kryptiq CareManager disease management software to set patient care benchmarks and prepare for their new pay-for-performance program. Unlike traditional approaches that rely on claims data, CareManager utilizes patient data taken directly from MIMA’s electronic medical record (EMR) system to measure patient outcomes, physician performance, quality, and customer service. This will enable MIMA to provide new levels of patient intervention and proactive care to their chronic populations.
Pay-for-performance programs were initially designed by health plans to create a common performance measurement and payment system. By design these systems rely on claims data, which is readily available to program administrators, but is not always a valid measure of actual or appropriate clinical care. By its nature, claims data presents historical rather than concurrent information, focuses on diagnosed patient populations instead of those who are at-risk or remain undiagnosed, and typically measures process compliance but not goal attainment. Such systems are inadequate in providing physicians with the necessary patient information for the active management of chronic patient populations. By using applications like CareManager, which employs patient data found in EMR systems, physicians can proactively manage patient populations with chronic conditions, such as diabetes, to create appropriate, measurable and cost-effective intervention programs.
“The time has arrived for physicians to be measured by and compensated for quality over quantity, and service over productivity,” said Dr. Richard Baney of Melbourne Internal Medicine. “To that end, today’s growing consumer-driven healthcare environment demands proactive, cost-effective patient outreach to demonstrate measurable outcomes. CareManager is a catalyst for successful pay-for-performance programs that link physician reimbursement to successful interventions.”
CareManager, which was recently honored in the AMGA 2005 Acclaim Award and won the 2004 DMAA eHealth Leadership Award, integrates with electronic medical record systems and empowers physicians to deliver proactive and coordinated healthcare based on existing clinical data. The system enables physicians to identify symptomatic patients who remain undiagnosed, patients who are overdue for needed tests or appointments, and patients who are not responding appropriately to treatment and may require special attention. In addition, CareManager provides physicians with real-time performance feedback regarding the quality of care they are providing based on standard guidelines.
MIMA is a 105 physician multi-specialty practice in central Florida that began using an electronic medical record in 1998. With the addition of CareManager, MIMA physicians can now automatically monitor the health status of more than 250,000 patients, many of whom suffer from chronic illnesses, helping them stay healthy and avoid the high cost of complications that result from untreated conditions.
About Kryptiq Corporation
Kryptiq is the leading provider of interoperability and workflow connectivity solutions for healthcare. Kryptiq streamlines healthcare communications among patients, providers, pharmacies and payers with secure messaging, electronic prescribing, disease management, and contract management technologies. By integrating these solutions with existing systems and applications, Kryptiq enables the trusted transport of health information where and when it is needed. Kryptiq’s fast-growing customer base includes many of the nation's top 100 integrated health networks, spans 44 states plus Washington, D.C., and includes well-known providers and payers such as Providence Health System, Capital Region Healthcare, MeritCare Health System, Eastern Maine Healthcare, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, and Northwest Permanente. For more information on the company, visit www.kryptiq.com.
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For more information, press only:
Lisa MacKenzie
MacKenzie Marketing Group
(503) 225-0725
