Florida Agency for Health Care Administration’s State Consumer Health Information and Policy Advisory Council Quarterly Meeting Report

 

At the State Consumer Health Information and Policy Advisory Council (“Council”) Quarterly meeting held today, March 29, 2012, Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (“AHCA”) Secretary Liz Dudek and AHCA Legislative Director Chris Chaney provided the Council with a brief agency update, including an update of the 2012 Florida Legislative Session.

During the meeting, the Council received updates from the Health Information Exchange Coordinating Committee (“HIECC”) and the Health Information Exchange Legal Work Group.

The HIECC reported that the Medicaid Electronic Health Record (“EHR”) Incentive Program is continuing to make payments to eligible professionals and hospitals.  As of February 24, payments of over $96 million in total have been made to 108 hospitals and over $41 million to 1,979 eligible professionals.

AHCA is revising patient health information authorization forms to be consistent with recent changes to federal guidelines relating to release of substance abuse information. Rule adoption for the new forms is expected to be completed by May 2012. Changes were made to the Patient Look-Up (“PLU”) subscription agreement related to “break the glass” requirements, which are posted on the Florida HIE Web site.  Additional changes related to substance abuse disclosure restrictions and notice of these restrictions is under review. Medicaid Personal Health Records for recipients now include fee-for-service claims data with medication histories to be added soon.  Work is also underway for the addition of managed care encounter data. The next HIECC meeting is tentatively set for May 18, 2012.

The HIELWG reported that AHCA filed a Notice of Rulemaking on January 6 to amend the Rules for the patient authorization forms to conform to federal guidelines for the release of substance abuse treatment records.  Included in the Notice of Rulemaking were additional clarification of the forms and a Spanish language version of the forms.  The Rule amendments and forms showing the changes are posted under “Rule Development” on the Florida Health Information Network Web site.  The Joint Administrative Procedures Committee (“JAPC”) has requested the AHCA address its authority for rulemaking under laws and regulations cited in the forms or remove the citations, and informed the agency it needs to remove the redisclosure statement.

The Council then heard a presentation about the Florida Center Dashboard Metric from the Office of Data Collection (“Office”).  The Office’s primary concern is with providers submitting encounter data.  Currently, data collection is occurring in an adequate and timely manner.  In 2008, around 20 percent of providers were delinquent in submitting data by an average of 17 months.  Currently, less than one percent of providers are delinquent by less than an average of six days, it was reported.

The Council adopted a communications plan that is designed to not only reach out to Medicaid providers and recipients, but also to other state agencies and the general public.  The Council regards it as imperative to educate as many stakeholders as possible on the need for Medicaid data submission.

The Council approved its 2012 Long Range Plan with the following goals:

Goal 1: Improve and streamline Florida Center data collection
Goal 2: Promote and improve FloridaHealthFinder.gov
Goal 3: Pursue a statewide HIE

The Council also made recommendations for benchmarks for determining if progress is being made throughout the year.  The benchmarks for Goal 1 are:

• Hold three or more Data Working Group meetings in Calendar Year (“CY”) 2012
• Hold three or more New Submitter forums in CY 2012
• Create an online video guide to data submission to supplement the existing data guide by December 31, 2012
• Manage Rule changes while continuing to process data submissions with little to no decrease in data currency

The benchmarks for Goal 2 are:

• Populate the Web site with “Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems“ (patient satisfaction scores) data by April 2012 
• Post physician volume for the principal procedure and operating physician for Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery and Angioplasty by February 2012 
• Post trending report for Congestive Heart Failure by March 2012; expand number of trending reports to two or three in 2012
• Analyze and report on ways to better utilize the data currently available, specifically the ambulatory surgery data
• Expand the number of “Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set” (quality of care indicators) for Medicaid from 10 to 40 measures by June 2012   
• To develop ways to expand and enhance, survey data users to see what they are using data for
• Expand on current emergency actions and sanctions information by July 2012 
• Conduct training on FloridaHealthFinder.gov and promote it to other state agencies (i.e. Florida Department of Elder Affairs, Florida Department of Health, Florida Department of Children and Family Services, etc.), legislative staff, the media, etc. by July 2012

The following goals to promote FloridaHealthFinder.gov were discussed:

• Increase the number of visits to 2 million by December 2012  
• Increase the number of visits to Compare Hospitals and Ambulatory Surgery Centers by five percent by December 2012 
• Increase the number of visits to Compare Health Plans by five percent by December 2012 
• Continue developing a communications plan and marketing toolkit that includes a strategy for reaching facilities, providers, consumers, patients, etc. through health fairs, open enrollment, press releases, op-eds, press conferences and newsletters through various materials such as pamphlets, bookmarks, Webinars and training videos 
• Increase promotion of the Facility/Provider Locator by focusing on educating and partnering with providers to feature FloridaHealthFinder.gov in their print materials and online resources 
• Expand efforts to develop social media tools and policies for display on social media, including Facebook, Twitter and mobile “apps” by June 2012 
• Develop on-line tutorials on how to use the Web site, and about why the information is useful by July 2012 
• Focus on expanding outreach to seniors by working with organizations such as AARP and SHINE to develop marketing opportunities 
• Expand and update information kits for health care providers 
• Develop opportunities to partner with other agencies and health councils for information forums to media groups and the public 
• Work with AHCA’s Information Technology Department to expand on the Facility/Provider Locator application for Medicaid beneficiaries

The benchmarks for Goal 3 are:

• Increase adoption of Direct Secure Messaging-the implemented secure messaging using National Direct Standards-including a participant directory of registered physicians and other participants to support Florida eligible providers in meeting the requirements for the Electronic Health Record Meaningful Use Incentive during 2012
  • Register 1,500 to 2,000 health care providers in the Participant Directory by January 1, 2013
  • Achieve 50 percent active participants who have sent a transaction at least one time in the last month by December 2012
  • Establish one Health Information Systems Programme (“HISP”) to HISP connection with one or more transactions by July 1, 2012 and an additional interstate, payer and provider HISP connection by January 1, 2013
  • Identify and engage organizations to participate in the Florida HIE PLU network in 2012
  • Ten to 12 organizations will be implemented for data-sharing by January 1, 2013, with eight to 10 actively sharing data daily.

• Increase the volume of electronic prescriptions and the number of electronic prescribing physicians within the state; increase the participation of independent pharmacies in electronic prescribing
  • Increase the electronic prescriptions by 25 percent and electronic prescribing physicians by 10 percent within the state from 2011 to 2012 and increase the participation of independent pharmacies in electronic prescribing

• Achieve increased meaningful use of certified electronic health records among Florida eligible professionals
• Achieve an increase in eligible professionals that are engaged in meaningful use of a certified electronic health record and/or adoption, implementation, upgrade of certified electronic health records that exceeds the baseline average for Florida reported by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid in 2011 by 10 percent in 2012
• Administer the Florida Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentives Program and make program payments accordingly during 2012
  • Make initial Medicaid Incentive payments to 50 percent of eligible hospitals in 2012
  • Make initial Medicaid Incentive payments to 25 percent of estimated eligible professionals in 2012

 

The Council’s next meeting is scheduled for June 2012.

 

 

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