By Monica E. Oss, Chief Executive Officer, OPEN MINDS
Making technology “work” was the focus of thr 2021 OPEN MINDS Technology & Analytics Institute. And the sessions (and the many discussions) had two different directions—how does an executive sync their organizational strategy with their technology strategy and, from that technology strategy, what are the new tech functionalities that an organization needs to acquire and optimize for success?
In my opening remarks, I outlined the high-level tech functionalities needed by most health and human service organizations for success in a landscape that is increasingly integrated, hybrid, and value-based (see If The Future Is Integrated, Hybrid & Value-Based—What Is Needed To Succeed? and The Computer Is A Moron). There are five domains of tech functionality that are needed to support performance optimization and management metrics—an electronic health record (EHR), an integrated finance/talent management platform, a hybrid service delivery platform, a platform for consumer interface, and tools for managing value-based reimbursement.
But within those broad domains are critical strategy questions. What specific functionality is required in each domain? What are the priorities for adding that functionality? What is the potential return-on-investment (ROI) and the capital required? Those are all questions answered by an organization’s long-term strategy for sustainability and its derivative tech strategy (see Caterpillar Or Butterfly?).
Last week’s sessions address both issues—and these session are available to registered attendees at https://technology.openminds.com/ until November 30, and to Elite-level members of OPEN MINDS Circle at https://openminds.com/resource-type/institute-presentation/.
The Changing Technology Landscape
The Evolving Digital First Health Care Landscape For The ‘Next Normal’
Keynote speaker Joseph Kvedar, M.D., vice president of connected health, Health Partners Massachusetts and president, American Telehealth Association, covered how technologiesare creating a balance between virtual and in-person care delivery, while focusing on improved quality of care; trends in virtual care adoption, from pre-COVID to today; and unpredictable factors that could influence the future of virtual care delivery. In 2020, virtual visit became a universally understood concept and for the first time in history, consumers experienced the convenience of having the health care services brought into their home. But, if “digital first” health care is to be a permanent part of our future, health and human service leaders will need a deeper understanding of the legislative and regulatory landscape.
From Policy To Action: How One State Is Implementing & Activating Sweeping Medicaid Reform & The Implications For Provider Organizations
Dave Richard, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Director, spoke to the Medicaid transformation in North Carolina, that recently took effect on July 1, 2021. The key elements of the transformation were highlighted. The key elements of this transformation will be highlighted including tailored plan implementations for complex needs consumers, the transition of care coordination functions to provider organizations via care coordination entities and adult medical homes, and the focus and requirement to address social determinants of health (SDOH). Learning objectives included understanding the technological advancements needed to track, monitor, and support sweeping state changes and learning how the state is supporting provider readiness.
What Are Health Plans Doing To Manage Behavioral Health Across The Population: Results From The New OPEN MINDS National Survey
OPEN MINDS Senior Associate Paul Duck discussed how health plans are addressing needs, what they are doing to address the rise in demand from the pandemic, the need for whole person care models, and the emerging new pharmaceutical agents and technologies for care delivery. Health plans are challenged with addressing the behavioral health needs of their members – and the effects of behavioral health conditions on health care utilization.
Providers Growingly Concerned About EHR Functionalities & The Technologies Needs For Future Service Delivery & Reimbursement: Top EHR Trends From The 2021 OPEN MINDS National Behavioral Health EHR Survey
OPEN MINDS Senior Associate, Joe Naughton-Travers presented the results of the 2021 OPEN MINDS National Behavioral Health EHR Survey and what your organization can do to plan for the next advances in health care technology and service delivery. Mr. Travers also discussed the growing concern among providers and what functionalities to be looking at for future service delivery and timely reimbursements. We’re bombarded with stories about electronic health records (EHR) evolving to become more flexible and use more services like blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and artificial intelligence, but what do your peers report firsthand? We recently concluded the sixth annual OPEN MINDS National Behavioral Health EHR Survey and found that 53% of provider organizations report their EHR does not have all the functionalities they need. Only 19% report their clinical, scheduling, billing, and reporting and analytics functionalities as meeting their needs. These Core 4 functionalities are crucial to service delivery and organizational sustainability.
The California Tech Roundtable – How CalAIM Will Change Technology Needs Of Specialty Provider Organizations
Richard Louis, III, vice president of the west region, and Kim Bond, executive vice president, covered the technology provider organizations will need to successfully provide services under these new managed care contracts, value-based reimbursement, and for the years to come. The session covered: CalAIM and the impact on the role of specialty provider organizations; technology functionality check list; and best practice approach to budgeting and selecting new technology. The California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) initiative will implement broad reforms to California’s Medicaid delivery system, programs, and payment methodologies.
The OPEN MINDS 2021 Technology Adoption Market Research Study
Monica E. Oss, chief executive officer, OPEN MINDS, kicked off the institute with the results from The OPEN MINDS 2021 Technology Adoption Market Research Study. OPEN MINDS surveyed specialty provider organizations in the health and human services field to determine where they are on the road to technology adoption. The past 12 months marked another year when the health and human services market looked to more value-based reimbursement to help control cost and quality. To succeed in that environment, specialty provider organizations will need to adopt new technologies that can help master population health management, data exchange, and clinical decision support. For executives to lead successfully, they need to link those tech investments to strategy for a sustainable performance and competitive advantage.
Technology Strategy
Unlocking Value Through Integration & Technology – Meeting Individuals & Families Where They Are
Keynote speaker Joseph Lee, MD, president and chief executive officer, Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation discussed the importance of an integrated care continuum, clinical excellence, technology and collaboration in creating an ecosystem of education, treatment and support that meets individuals, families and communities where they are at every stage, from prevention to recovery. Achieving advances in addiction and mental health care, and outcomes, requires integrating high-quality services across a continuum to engage people in the right ways, in the right amount and at the right times—informed by data, empowered by well-trained people and technology, and rooted in a strong foundation of clinical fidelity.
Making The Right Technology Investments For Your Organization: An OPEN MINDS Executive Seminar On Technology Strategy, Budgeting & Planning
OPEN MINDS Senior Associates Ken Carr and Sharon Hicks covered the big challenges facing executives as they lead their organization on the path to a tech-driven future, including how to develop a technology strategy that aligns with your organization’s strategic plan; to establish a technology budget that allows your organizations to meet its strategic goals; and to apply best practices in technology selection, implementation, and optimization. As technology takes a more central role in the strategy development and sustainability for health and human service organizations, it brings new issues for executive teams to grapple with: What technology to invest in to support the organization and deliver a competitive advantage? How much to spend on technology infrastructure?
It Takes More Than Wifi: Technology’s Role In Home Care
Carol Clayton, Ph.D., senior associate, OPEN MINDS; Kristen Daugherty, LCSW-S, LISW-S, MBA, chief executive officer, Emergence Health Network; and Neal Tilghman, MPA general manager, Integrated Care, Netsmart discussed the prevalence of home care and its impact on quality and staff; the benefits and challenges of receiving and delivering more care at home; and strategies to improve care delivery at home.
Technology & Data, Maximizing Value, & Value-Based Reimbursement – The Health Plan Framework & The Provider Tools To Optimize Reimbursement
OPEN MINDS Senior Associates Carol Clayton and Sharon Hicks covered how a health plan defines value, ways to partner with a health plan to achieve that vision of value and demonstrate success, and actionable data and technology that is used to improve quality of service, measure value, and document success.
Making Analytics Work For Strategy & Sustainability—The Metrics, The Dashboard & The Management
OPEN MINDS Senior Associates Carol Clayton and Ken Carr shared how to make the economic argument with documented return-on-investment, how to best use reporting, analytics and dashboarding for metric management and outcomes reporting, and how to make the economic argument with documented return-on-investment.
Technology Budgeting—The What & The How
OPEN MINDS Senior Associates Ken Carr and Carol Clayton discussed data mining, consumer portals, and collection of external information. They also discussed the impacts in a value-based world, how to pay for it, and how to get the best ROI.
Technology Strategies To Address The Workforce Shortage—Emerging Practices
OPEN MINDS Senior Associates Jason Lippman and Joseph P. Naughton-Travers covered covered technologies that help to increase employment opportunities in the new service delivery models, ways to keep talent with technology, and how to plan for the workforce and technology for the future. Workforce shortage is a front and center issue for executive leaders. Reasons cited often include pay scale, scope of practice, geography, and administrative burden. How can technologies help ensure a talented and competitively paid workforce with opportunities to increase competencies and grow within their organizations. Who is out there and how do we bring them in and keep them.
Consumer-Focused Technology For Better Consumer Experience & Engagement
OPEN MINDS Senior Associates Paul Duck and Jason Lippman and Anna Lindow, chief executive officer and co-founder of Brave Health discussed the categories of consumer-facing technologies, technologies that are being used, and how organizations are using technologies currently in their organizations. Studies are still underway, but early data tells us that virtual care works better for some than others. And in different ways. This is also true for telehealth implementation among service provider organizations. How does your organization ensure that your telehealth “virtual presence” meets the need of those you serve, your staff and revenue targets on an ongoing basis? Is there enough data to know how we are really doing with telehealth?
Making Technologies Work
Going Hybrid—The Process & The Technology For An Integrated Virtual, In-Home & In-Clinic Service Model
OPEN MINDS Senior Associates Ken Carr and Joseph P. Naughton-Travers covered models of hybrid service delivery; technologies that support hybrid models clinically, fiscally, and analytically; and sustainability in the new normal.
Just What The Doctor Ordered: Innovations In Telehealth For Adults With Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities (I/DD)
Hope Levy, executive director at Premier HealthCare, discussed of her organization optimized telehealth to extend clinical services for a vulnerable and isolated populations. Ms. Levy covered the complexity and representation of medical conditions in the I/DD population, mobile medical stations and technology to support people in residential settings, and key outcomes and successes for the population served. The move to telehealth services to address medical and physical health needs for adults with Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities (I/DD), particularly those served in residential settings, preceded the pandemic.
Using The Evidence To Measure Progress In Addiction Treatment: The Vertava Case Study
Amy Anderson, Account Director, Tridiuum; Melissa Stöcker, BSN, RN Director, Quality, Vertava HEALTH; Marjorie Pettingell MSW, LICSW, Senior Vice President, Quality Vertava HEALTH; and Daniel Coyne, BSN, RN, CARN, Director, Utilization Review, Vertava HEALTH covered the influence of addiction and mental health issues on physical, emotional, and relational status throughout recovery and substance use disorders assessment tools.
Making The Transition To Community Living Work: The North Carolina Case Study On The Technology & Data Required
Sam Hedrick, JD, senior advisor ADA, transitions to community living, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, focused on the transition of serving long-standing institutionalized individuals in the community and the importance of data, technology, and care coordination. Over ten years ago, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) brought a lawsuit against North Carolina alleging that the state had violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Supreme Court’s 1999 Olmstead decision by failing to afford people with complex needs the opportunity to live in integrated settings.
Finding An Electronic Health Record System For Your Future: The OPEN MINDS Executive Seminar On Best Practices In EHR Selection, Contracting & Optimization
OPEN MINDS Senior Associates Joseph P. Naughton-Travers and Sharon Hicks guided attendees through a step-by-step process for selecting an EHR that fits all your organization’s needs.
Optimizing Home-Based Services With Technology—The 21st Century Cures Act, Electronic Visit Verification, Route Mapping & More
Sarah Elliott, vice president, executive education, OPEN MINDS; Ken Dales, chief information officer, The Arc Mid-Hudson; and Sherry Tucker, chief executive officer, WellLife Network Inc discussed the 21st Century Cures Act; Electronic Visit Verification systems; and meeting the requirements of the 21st Century Cures Act & EVV in a hybrid service delivery model.
Moving To A Next Generation Web Site—The Objectives, The Plan & The Technology
OPEN MINDS Executive Vice President of Marketing, Tim Snyder, covered best practices in organizing content, the importance of making website consumer experiences compelling, and steps in website evaluation and improvement. It is ever more important for your organization to have a website that helps your consumers keep pace with all their digital health options. Websites must be kept current as new services and providers enter the market at great speed. Services must be easy to find and clear about how your organization can fill a service gap.
Data Security: Why Every CEO Needs A Security Plan & How To Develop One
OPEN MINDS Senior Associate Sharon Hicks covered the role of a security advocate in keeping your organization aware, protected, and compliant; common vectors of attack and areas of vulnerability for any organization; and tools and processes that can help keep your data and your customers safe.
A Tale of Two Providers: Implementing AI Documentation Tech to Drive Revenue & Staff Productivity
Joseph P. Naughton-Travers, senior associate, OPEN MINDS; Sue Amero, operations manager, Wings For Children and Families Inc; Mary C. Jones, LCMFT, LCAC, president and chief executive officer, Mental Health Association of South Central Kansas; and Peter Flick, founder and chief executive officer, Remarkable Health shared key learnings and best practices on seamlessly layering on AI documentation tools that helped them successfully accelerate staff onboarding time, improve quality of documentation, reduce costs, and increase revenue per employee.
How Are You Doing With The ‘Whole Person’? Using Technology For The Integration Of Complex Consumer Health Care
OPEN MINDS Senior Associates Sharon Hicks and Jason Lippman spoke with Courtney Frank, director of health operations, Citizen Advocates and Kati Jock, chief integration officer, Citizen Advocates. They discussed whole person care, tech innovations to address both the physical and emotional health of the individuals you serve, and models of physical health integration in service provider organizations who serve complex consumers.
The Complexities Of Managing Whole Person Care: What It Looks Like & Why It Is Important?
Sharon Hicks, senior associate, OPEN MINDS; Jerold Greer, chief information officer, Daymark Recovery Services; Javier Favela, vice president, behavioral health solutions, NextGen Healthcare covered the pressures on the health care system and viewed the one model that has demonstrated significant value in breaking down the barriers to care.