Other Programs
NYC REACH members can access resources and pilot programs from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. These programs use your EHR features for innovative public health initiatives based on top public health concerns for New York City.
Depending on your practice, you may qualify for one or more of these programs. Read below to find out more:
HEAL 17: Patient Engagement and Education Kiosk Project (PEEK)
NYC REACH in partnership with the Primary Care Information Project and the Fund for Public Health in New York (FPHNY) is providing kiosks for primary care physician offices in New York City to strengthen patient engagement and health promotion by allowing patients to access their personal health record (PHR), or "patient portal", easily and securely in the physican's office. This allows easy access to educational health materials including videos and other relevant documents for improved health management.
By developing a PHR, individuals can play a more active role in their own health care. By being able to view their health information, patients can be more informed in decision making when it comes to health conditions, treatment options, and management of chronic disease, healthy lifestyle choices, and preventive actions. Patient involvement in their own health care can lead to better health outcomes. There are currently 2 kiosk-enabled practices in the PCIP network.
NYC REACH members should have received an e-mail from FPHNY with details. For more information including a list of frequently asked questions, please visit the bottom of http://fphny.org/whatsnew/rfps. Applications are due May 10, 2013 at 11:59PM.
HEAL 22
The New York State Department of Health, Office of the Health and Information Technology Transformation (OHITT) has contracted with Regional Extension Centers (RECs) to provide electronic health record (EHR) implementation support and adoption services to mental health and behavioral health providers participating in the Medicaid Health Home program. New York State passed the Health Care Efficiency and Affordability Law for New Yorkers Capital Grant Program in 2004 (HEAL NY) to implement 21st century health information infrastructure to support the delivery of high quality care. HEAL 22 specifically provides technical support to adopt and use health information technology and exchange for mental health / behavioral health providers serving New York State Medicaid Health Homes. The program began on June 1, 2012 and will end October 31, 2013. Click here to read more
Panel Management
Panel Management was a program that connected primary care providers with patients most in need of ongoing care. PCIP’s program uses staff that is shared between multiple independent small practices. POSs use query functionality built into the EHR to identify adult patients who have diagnoses of ischemic vascular disease, uncontrolled hypertension, hyperlipidemia, or both diabetes and obesity and have not had a recent primary care visit.
To date the panel management program has scheduled 2,409 primary care visits for patients enrolled in the program. What a participating provider said about Panel Management:
- “[A patient] came to see me after not coming in for eleven months. His blood pressure was out of control. He had run out of meds. He said he came in because a panel manager had called. I told [the panel manager] that she saved his life”
This program has ended and data is currently under evaluation.
Financial Assistance and Staff Recruitment
NYC Business Solutions works closely with the Primary Care Information Project and NYC REACH to help physicians find financing for EHR adoption. This group can also help you find experienced staff to work in an EHR-enabled practice.
Health eHearts Pay for Performance
NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) Health eHearts (“eHearts” or healthy hearts), was an incentive program funded by the Robin Hood Foundation. This initiative rewarded and recognized several electronic health record (EHR)-enabled practices for achieving excellent heart health in patients. eHearts focused on improving cardiovascular health to produce the greatest impact on the health of New Yorkers. Unlike other pay-for-performance programs, eHearts use EHR-generated clinical quality outcomes and was designed to reduce health disparities.
All participants received quality reports and public recognition. PCIP’s Health eHearts pay-for-quality program disbursed $4 million in incentives to EHR enabled providers that improved on a core set of quality measures related to cardiovascular health including aspirin therapy, blood pressure and cholesterol control, and smoking cessation (ABCS). Over 700 providers participated in the program and all practices saw improvement on the A, B, and S measures.
Health eQuits Pay for Performance
With funding from the CDC Communities Putting Prevention to Work, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Primary Care Information Project (PCIP) created a program to improve the rate of smoking cessation intervention, known as Health eQuits. Health eQuits was designed to pay for improvement above baseline, and offered modest compensation ($20 per intervention improvement). The program targeted large community health centers (CHCs) because they serve a higher proportion of Medicaid patients, which research suggests have higher rates of smoking. With a total funding of $360,000, the program aimed to ensure that an additional 1800 smokers got recommended smoking cessation interventions among the 19 large practices participating. Preliminary results include:
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Average rates of tobacco counseling across participating community health centers increased from 28% of documented smokers received smoking cessation counseling from their providers to 53%, an addition of 47,705 smoking cessation interventions delivered.
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The EHRs used by participating practices generated alerts to remind providers to document smoking status and council patients on smoking. Interventions included counseling by provider, prescription for cessation medication, or referral to NY State Fax to Quit.
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New York Hotel Trades Council (NYHTC) and Hotel Association of NYC (HANYC), Inc. Employee Benefit Funds implemented eQuits with the most success. Preliminary results show a 30% overall quit rate and in one site, a combined 50% quit and smoking reduction rate. Their success was recently recognized at the event “NYC Celebrates Improved Health Through Technology” with Mayor Michael Bloomberg; Dr. Thomas Frieden, CDC Director; Dr. Thomas Farley, NYC Health Commissioner; and Dr. Farzad Mostashari, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
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The Health eQuits program achievement will be recognized by CDC’s Million Hearts Initiative
For more about these programs, contact pcip@health.nyc.gov
