News Feature | April 29, 2014

Future Of Healthcare Depends On PHM

Christine Kern

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Population Health Management Critical To Future Of Healthcare

Whitepaper examines data management requirements of PHM.

A Health Catalyst whitepaper, Population Health Management and Accountable Care, provides a working definition of population health and insight into 12 criteria that every health system should consider when evaluating population health management companies for success today and into the future.

Author Dale Sanders notes, “In June 2013, The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology released a white paper entitled, ‘A Health IT Framework for Accountable Care’” which had a similar intent to that which I undertake in this paper. It is an excellent paper in its own regard and should be referenced when organizations are evaluating vendors and plotting their PHM strategy. In the CCHIT document, the authors make a powerful statement about the need for analytics, which is, of course, in total alignment with my opinion:

‘A high priority is the establishment of a data warehouse that can accept, store, normalize, and integrate data from multiple clinical, operational, financial, and patient derived systems. All of the key processes and many of the functions and HIT capabilities listed are dependent on the existence of such a data repository. How your organization performs with respect to its goals will be dependent on a timeline that outlines what data will be incorporated and when.’”

Sanders wanted something more succinct – an objective checklist for strategy development and vendor evaluation – and a sense of timing and prioritization tailored to the realities of the market. “Those realities include”, writes Sanders, “(1) A vendor market with incomplete PHM offerings; (2) Only 18 million U.S. lives are currently being managed under an ACO (according to a report from Leavitt Partners).”

He stressed the current economic model is insufficient to drive many of the changes outlined in the CCHIT paper.  In other words, the CCHIT paper does not provide a sense of realistic timing for assembling the IT and data management systems needed for PHM.

According to Sanders “No single vendor in the current healthcare IT market currently meets all the requirements of population health management, as practiced by the leading integrated delivery networks.”

Using a list of 12 specific criteria, Sanders evaluated the current market vendors in regards to the PHM needs.  He concluded:

  • The integrated delivery networks have been practicing population health management for a number of years. Follow their lead.
  • In addition to this paper, the CCHIT framework should also be referenced when developing an organizational strategy and evaluating vendors for population health management.
  • There is no single vendor that can provide a complete PHM solution today.
  • The sequence of these criteria is important. Of the 12 criteria listed, and given the current state of the vendor market and industry trends, organizations should focus on the first criteria over the next three years, while the context evolves.