Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute (HCI3) has released a new version of its episode of care analysis freeware aimed at helping providers wanting to take part in the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation's (CMMI) Bundled Payments for Care Improvement initiative.
The CMMI pilot seeks to foster payment innovation through the use of bundled payments for specific treatments with the goal of improving care coordination and clinical outcomes in a patient-centered setting. The CMMI Bundled Payment ECR (Evidence-Informed Case Rates) freeware has been customized to run on Medicare Part A and B claims and help pilot applicants effectively analyze the costs and outcomes of a number of different episodes of care including congestive heart failure (CHF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), total hip replacement, total knee replacement, coronary rrtery bypass graft (CABG), percutaneous coronary interventions, pneumonia and acute myocardial infarction (AMI).
[See also: Bundled payment initiative to lower costs, help coordinate care; Bundled Payments for Care Improvement]
"This special version of our free episode analysis software will enable hospitals and physicians to not only estimate the episode price for the Bundled Payment pilot, but also provide them with valuable insights on their current potentially avoidable complications," said Francois de Brantes, executive director for not-for-profit HCI3 in a press release announcing the freeware release. "The end result is an actionable roadmap for improving the quality of care delivered and lowering historical episode costs."
Providers using the HCI3 freeware can select specific hospital stays for analysis and to modify the episode time window once a patient has been discharged. In addition, it can track the frequency and costs associated with avoidable complications with the episodes, including preventable readmissions.
To further aid providers interested in applying for the bundled payment pilot, HCI3 has dedicated a section of its website to information on the CMMI, which includes information detailing characteristics of providers that make them well-suited to the bundled payment pilot and case studies detailing how physicians and hospitals can contract with each other to create an effective bundled payment program.
The Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute Inc., is a not-for-profit multi-stakeholder umbrella organization whose mission is to create improvements in the quality and affordability of healthcare by developing and implementing programs that recognize and reward physicians, hospitals and other healthcare providers that deliver safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable and patient-centered care.