Looking Forward: Past successes pave the way for productive collaboration

Sunday, November 01, 2015 11:33 AM

by CMS and COPIC staff report

During the last year, more than 20 videos have been posted to www.copic
pearls.com to highlight the unique partnership between COPIC and CMS. The videos feature comments from physicians, legislators, health care advocates and several others who share their perspectives on how this partnership has benefited health care in Colorado.

Most of this insight focuses on examples that illustrate the positive impact of both organizations. From this strong foundation, we are preparing for the future and looking at how we can help the health care community in a variety of ways.

Advocacy that represents a strong voice for physicians and their patients
As health care continues to evolve, COPIC and CMS recognize how important it is to bring an informed perspective to policy discussions. We are gearing up for the 2016 legislative session through ongoing meetings with legislators, involvement with regulatory agencies, and outreach efforts to our insureds and members to make them aware of prominent issues. Patient safety will continue to be an area of focus as we look at additional ways to reinforce this concept without creating unnecessary barriers.

CMS is in conversations with the health plans on how they build, manage and trim down their physician networks. We hope these conversations lead to a policy framework that guides the plans to make legitimate business decisions while assuring those decisions are made transparently and afford physicians their rights when they are fulfilling clinical responsibilities to patients. In addition to network adequacy, we have the pressing challenge of setting reasonable standards of accountability for the impending consolidation of two major health plans in Colorado. CMS has worked with plans before for a favorable outcome and will continue to do so.

Education that prepares for the next generation
COPIC continues to invest in technology and resources that help support medical professionals in gaining the knowledge they need. In 2016, we will be launching new courses based on current medical trends, claims data, and the feedback we receive from insureds. These include new on-demand courses and seminar topics that support lifelong learning for providers.

CMS is working to revamp the structure of the 2016 Annual Meeting to maximize its relevance to members, boost educational content and optimize opportunities for collaboration, communication and collegiality. We are recognized by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education and will continue to serve as an accreditor of providers and engage in joint providership with local organizations that develop and implement CME activities to meet the educational needs of Colorado physicians.

Programs that push innovation forward
In September 2015, the Institute of Medicine released a report titled Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, which looked at the issue of diagnostic errors. Besides analyzing the contributing factors, the report also offered ideas for improving and reducing these errors such as:

• Developing a reporting environment and medical liability system that facilitates improved diagnosis through learning from diagnostic errors and near misses.
• Facilitating more effective teamwork in the diagnostic process among health care professionals, patients and their families.

The good news is that COPIC has been at the forefront of these ideas for quite some time, and we plan to be a leader in the years to come. We are enhancing the guidelines used in our practice reviews that help identify and mitigate high-risk areas for diagnostic errors. Our 3Rs Program stands out as a national benchmark for communication and resolution programs, which the report recommends. COPIC continues to encourage provider involvement to enhance the program’s effectiveness.

CMS is a vital partner in many state health care initiatives, working to make Colorado the healthiest state in the nation. Colorado benefits from our health policy and business leaders who have the maturity, vision and commitment to identify the issues and work together to fix them. We have achieved policy advancements in system delivery that are not possible in many states, and we are fully engaged on multiple fronts to continue advancing Colorado medicine.

The 30-year partnership between COPIC and CMS has helped make Colorado one of the safest states in America to be a patient and the greatest state in America to practice medicine. The COPIC Precious Pearls video series has highlighted some of the great stories of our past and present, and an exciting future lies ahead.