Members have identified a variety of benefits through their active participation in HVHC:
- Earlier knowledge on best practices rather than waiting for peer-reviewed publications and money saved from care improvement projects and alternative payment model preparation
- Inter- and intra-system comparative analytics combining Medicare and Member data for collaborative research, enhancing shared learning and saving money by sharing cost of CMS data and analytics rather than purchasing and conducting research independently
- Influence on national agenda of healthcare and payment reform through data-driven findings. (see examples of our advocacy work)
- Peer-to-peer relationships, sharing knowledge and lessons learned – avoid reinventing the wheel
- Hands-on data access to answer research questions related to care improvement and new payment models via the HVHC Fellow Program. (learn about the HVHC Fellow Program)
- Work directly with HVHC-wide Member-submitted data to conduct exploratory analyses and bring new project ideas to HVHC
- Work directly with CMS claims data as research collaborators to assist with high-priority HVHC projects covered under CMS DUAs
- Provide insights on local institution’s needs and challenges; translate value of HVHC using data for collaborative learning by all HVHC Members
- Grow professionally by gaining knowledge of and experience with new data types, analytic approaches, and tools
- Academic opportunities through the research cycle of proposal, planning, executing, writing, and publishing studies using HVHC data and collaborative relationships. (see examples of our published work)
- Access to shared materials, tools, and templates that would otherwise be created or purchased independently
- Money saved by avoided submission to additional registries under Meaningful Use and MIPS requirements
Value Proposition
In Our Members Own Words
- Baylor Scott & White Health: HVHC data helped guide efficiency improvement work for total joint replacement care episodes. Specifically, comparative data in the CMS population indicated that total joint replacement utilization and inpatient episode payments at our facilities were below or near the average of HVHC Members, but post-acute care expenses in this same population were identified as being significantly higher.
- Dartmouth-Hitchcock: Membership in HVHC helps us focus and structure our quality improvement efforts in a more effective way. As HVHC Members, access to data has been critical for activating our clinical teams. Collaborating with fellow HVHC organizations allows us to see beyond our local environment and develop solutions for difficult organizational issues.
- Hawaii Pacific Health: The HVHC data reporting registry saves participating hospitals time and provides a six-figure benefit for participating in the [Meaningful Use] registry. Additionally, our clinicians had significant concerns about fluid management for sepsis patients with heart failure and with chronic renal disease. We engaged several other HVHC Members to work together on a deeper data evaluation to better understand this clinical question where the evidence base was lacking, resulting in added confidence in our fluid management approach.
- Intermountain Healthcare: Data and best practice sharing regarding the early treatment of pediatric asthma allowed us to implement the care process fully at our pediatric hospital and decrease the asthma admission rate by over 40%. We are now in the process of rolling that treatment algorithm out to all facilities.
- Mayo Clinic: The Mayo team partnered closely with HVHC to construct, validate, and test methodologies for risk adjustment in a bundled payment environment. We took our findings to the CMS Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) together with HVHC colleagues, which was then used to improve federal payment policy under MIPS. Without partnering with HVHC, our work would not have been considered as reliable or generalizable, which helped to further our request for risk adjustment within bundled payment models to protect both patients and providers.
- Mercy: Membership in HVHC allows us to share best practice initiatives with other Member organizations, which we have found to be very valuable especially in the areas of Cardiovascular Care and Sepsis / Virtual Sepsis Care. In addition, as CMS and other payors continue to tie quality performance to reimbursement, there is a greater need for collaboration with high performing organizations to share metrics, leverage data to gain new insights, and ultimately improve the quality of care provided for our patients. The HVHC Fellow Program provides access to an inter-organizational team of healthcare data analysts and data scientists working together to develop insights on pressing questions of care process, outcomes, and cost.
- Northwell Health: HVHC value-based measure insights show promising value; for example, understanding the protein calorie malnutrition (PCM) contribution to risk-adjusted congestive heart failure readmission rates has catalyzed our efforts to improve recognition and treatment of PCM in our heart failure population.
- Providence St. Joseph Health: HVHC is an additional tool for our government affairs team to comment with peers on important policy issues. It is a unique opportunity to amplify our voice in legislation and deepen our partnership with CMS.