Population Health

Fast on the heels of an announcement by the ONC that the agency was launching a patient matching initiative, CHIME’s Russ Branzell gave HCI’s Mark Hagland an industry-first interview regarding CHIME’s praise for ONC’s announcement, and CHIME’s response to that announcement.

As the Cleveland Clinic prepares to host its annual Cleveland Clinic Innovation Summit, Gary Fingerhut, who helps oversee health IT commercialization at the organization, shared his perspectives on what the organization hopes to gain in this rapidly evolving arena.

It’s a unique time in healthcare. Public and private initiatives are aligning and are working synergistically toward the transformation of the healthcare system through improved care access, quality and cost. Part of this movement is a paradigm shift away volume-based, fee-for-service care toward a system where quality is the foundational aspect of all clinical and administrative operations—a healthcare system incentivized by a performance-based regulatory and reimbursement environment to provide proactive, patient-centered care.

As health information exchange evolves forward, industry leaders and experts debate what to do about some of the continuing obstacles to granular-level data exchange. Should federal officials intervene?

In June of this year, the Government Employee Health Association (GEHA), Independence, Mo., the nation’s second-largest health plan for civilian federal employees and retirees, enrolled 1,500 members in a virtual weight loss management program that it says was successful with nearly 80 percent of participants in 2012. That’s a significant milestone, because it demonstrates that a Web-based technology can be an effective and relatively low-cost way for individuals to lower their health risks.