How to Use This Checklist:
This is a supplement to our Module 2: The Managed Care Data Set, which uses the HCP-LAN APM Framework as its basis. Review both before using this checklist. There are terms used throughout that may be new to you or may benefit from detailed explanations—please visit our Value Based Payment Glossary for basic definitions for a host of key terms.

This checklist will walk you, the health center, through a series of common considerations for contracts you may receive from payers with a specific focus on contracts that include value-based payment components. This document assists organizations in understanding the necessary data and data-related tools for managing population health within a managed care environment. It is a primer on the types of best-practices that are necessary to maximize care delivery models that are responsive to value-based payment programs. Follow this checklist to further your understanding of these considerations and to help flag any outstanding issues for legal and/or consultant review prior to execution.

It is important to understand, contracts can be complicated and no one tool can effectively address all possible contract configurations and their potential issues. Use this as a guide with other resources, access outside expertise when needed, and apply your own knowledge and understanding of your business. It also never hurts to ask the health plan representatives if something is not clearly understood.

Health center utilization of telehealth advanced in leaps and bounds since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. In 2019, fewer than 500,000 visits in health centers nationwide were provided via telehealth, and in 2020, over 28 million visits were conducted virtually as reported in the Uniform Data System (UDS).¹
Massachusetts leadership and learning in telehealth have been a collaborative effort between Community Care Cooperative (C3) and the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers that together formed the FQHC Telehealth Consortium. In April 2020, the FQHC Telehealth Consortium began leadership calls with participating health centers to make progress on long-term telehealth strategy, with an initial focus on patient access and health center revenue. The FQHC Telehealth Consortium worked with Massachusetts health centers to develop a vision of telehealth maturity advancement and measurement specific to health centers, which, in turn, led to the development of a telehealth maturity model assessment tool to be applied across five domains.² This tool was used to conduct interviews in telehealth maturity in summer/fall 2020 and again in summer/fall 2021. The key objectives of measuring telehealth maturity were to:

1. Understand successes in implementation over the 18-month period from March 2020 through September 2021.
2. Identify areas for continued development and refinement of telehealth models in health centers in order to sustain telehealth past the pandemic.

In 2021, interviews, using the maturity assessment tool, were conducted with health center leaders from each of 34 Masssachusetts health centers. The tool assesses telehealth advancement across the domains of strategy and leadership, clinical integration, people, technology, and reimbursement and policy. During the 34 interviews, themes emerged as to where health centers need to focus their efforts to advance, as well as best practices and recommendations. This resource summarizes those themes, organized by experience, what to do now, and next steps, within each of the five domains. The intent is for the experiences of Massachusetts health centers to inform others across the country.

¹Health Center Program Uniform Data System (UDS) Data Overview 

² HITEQ Center - Assessing Telehealth Maturity in Health Centers: A report out on the progress of Massachusetts health centers in advancing telehealth during a pandemic

 

 

Download the resource in the Documents to Download Section below.

 

 

Providers are burnt out and most expect it to get worse. Burnout is typically defined as a psychological response to job stressors characterized by emotional exhaustion, detachment, and a sense of ineffectiveness. Investigations of burnout in primary care have usually focused on factors associated with burnout among individual clinicians. But, it may be more useful to think about organizational-level burnout, which can shift the focus from individual responsibility to organizational solutions. This piece outlines organizational-level approaches to use address provider burden with health IT.

Since 2020, health centers have reported the HIV Screening clinical quality measure on the UDS. HITEQ hosted discussions with health centers in fall of 2021 to find out how they have made progress on this clinical quality measure and gleaned tips from these participants which can be found within.

HITEQ compiled this resource library for health centers, which houses actionable PrEP resources including checklists, pocket guides, and billing guidance. This curated set of resources aims to assist health centers in accessing those resources that directly address current PrEP challenges.