The inaugural NCQA Health Innovation Summit, a four-day event taking place in Washington, D.C., gathered stakeholders across the healthcare industry to partake in discussions that focused on all aspects of quality, including digital solutions, health equity, and value-based care. The conference room was buzzing with energy from payers, providers, consultants, and other healthcare leaders who were eager to learn about innovative data solutions and next-generation technologies that can help improve quality.
Diameter Health associates, now Availity associates, had the distinct pleasure of participating in two panels featuring our partners and clients who are leaders in the use of digital clinical data to streamline operations and increase long-term health outcomes. John D’Amore, co-founder and former strategic advisor, and Ashley Basile, Ph.D., Chief Product Officer, joined Cecelia Byers Ph.D., Clinical Product Advisor, Specialty at Surescripts, and Laura McCrary Ed.D., President and CEO of KONZA, Inc., in a session called Turning Data Potential to Data Power.
Dr. Byers shared how for specialty pharmacists, ready access to patient health data is vital for the medication approvals process. Superscript has embedded Diameter Health Fusion technology into its Specialty Medications Gateway solution to provide up-to-date and complete clinical data aggregated from multiple providers and data sources. As a result, pharmacies are presented with a unified patient record that contains high-quality, interoperable clinical data to simplify the enrollment process. Dr. Basile discussed how participating clients such as Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC) are incorporating clinical data into their enterprise data strategies for timely identification of care gaps, HEDIS® reporting, and compliance with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) patient access mandates, among other use cases.
Amy Krane, Senior Director of Health Information Exchange (HIE) strategy and solutions, moderated a roundtable panel discussion with JoEllen Komanetsky, VP Product and Dr. McCrary called Pioneers in Data Aggregator Validation (DAV). The DAV program is sponsored by the NCQA and puts a spotlight on how HIEs and other aggregators are ensuring the accuracy and completeness of the data they collect and distribute to health plans. The room was packed, as both providers and health plans understand the importance of the program on their operations and consider the benefits of participation in this relatively new program for data quality. McCrary described her organization’s successes and challenges with the DAV program, a rigorous 18-week process that examples standards for data processing, transformation and output. Unfortunately, fellow panelist speaker, Don Lee, Director of Strategy and Business Development for HealtheConnections was unable to attend as he was stuck on the tarmac in Buffalo, New York due to fog.
For participating clients, using Diameter Health’s, now Availity’s, certified Fusion technology for Upcycling Data™, KONZA, Inc. was able to increase their efficiency in obtaining NCQA validation, further helping them win new contracts with health plans, streamline data exchange between stakeholders, and improve patient care with high quality, DAV-certified data streams. During the session, panelists also provided expert guidance on making the business case for undertaking the DAV program; understanding the resource requirements and issues to anticipate; and considerations for selecting a certified data partner.
All of us are happy to share our experiences with DAV, so please feel free to reach out to Amy.Krane@availity.com to get connected to these experts. If you’re interested in learning more about how data can transform your business, and the challenges of tapping into that potential, download the Potential of Clinical Data insight brief today!
